NEW BOOK, examines pharmaceutical policy in Canada and its impact on patients, taxpayers, innovation, and trade relations with the United States

TORONTO, Oct. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Does Canada pay a fair share of the global cost of pharmaceutical innovation? Are the prices for patented medicines threatening the sustainability of public drug plans? How many new drugs are covered under Canada's public drug plans, and how long does it take to cover them? Is Canadian pharmaceutical policy a non-tariff barrier to trade?

In Building Better Pharma Policy in Canada, author Brett J Skinner, PhD, founder and CEO of the Canadian Health Policy Institute, offers evidence-based answers to these, and other intriguing questions.

According to Skinner, "Canada's policy environment is increasingly hostile to the introduction of new drugs. Pharmaceutical companies are beginning to de-prioritize the Canadian market for the launch of new products. The most advanced treatments are introduced much earlier to Americans and Europeans, while Canadians wait many months or years."

Dr. Skinner explained, "most of the new drugs that are approved by Health Canada, are excluded from coverage under public drug insurance formularies, and the few drugs that get covered are included only after long delays. As a result, patients' access to the most effective prescription drugs is deteriorating. Canadians are missing the health and economic gains that would otherwise accrue to the country from maximizing the utilization of innovative therapies."

The book presents the counter evidence to the myths influencing pharmaceutical policy in Canada including –

• spending on innovative drugs is unsustainable, and the prices of patented medicines are too high.
• price regulation has no impact on the availability of new drugs or investment in pharmaceutical research and development (R&D).
• research and development costs for new medicines are inflated, and the pharmaceuticals industry benefits unfairly from research funded by government.
• Canada can be a "free rider" on intellectual property rights, price regulation, and market access, without jeopardizing the availability of new medicines.
• millions of Canadians are uninsured for drug costs and incur unaffordable out-of-pocket expenditures forcing them to choose between food and prescriptions.
• public drug plans provide access to medicines that is equivalent to private drug plans, and drug coverage under national pharmacare will be adequate because it will include all "essential" medicines.

In one chapter in the book, Skinner also argues that "Canadian pharmaceutical policies create non-tariff trade barriers for foreign innovative pharmaceutical companies by reducing access to public drug plan formularies. Canadian policies erode the commercially viable period under patent for innovative medicines and artificially depress prices below normal market levels."

Skinner offers practical policy solutions in the book that could remedy the main problems he covers in his analysis.

Building Better Pharma Policy in Canada, is available at the following booksellers:

Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Google Play, Apple Books, the Friesen Press Bookstore, and others.

Author contact: Brett J Skinner, PhD, [email protected].

About CHPI: www.canadianhealthpolicy.com. 

SOURCE Canadian Health Policy Institute