Agency struggled to get pharma companies to engage in drug-price reform: memo

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Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos was warned that pharmaceutical companies had steadfastly refused to engage on drug-price reforms before he urged an independent federal agency to pause those reforms in favour of more consultation, a 2021 memo shows.

The memo, obtained by the NDP through the access-to-information law and shared with The Canadian Press, is a status report from the acting chair of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board to the health minister about obstacles they were facing to lowering the price of drugs.

The agency was in the process of consulting on the finer details associated with the new rule in November when Duclos wrote to the acting chair and suggested the process be paused to give drug companies, patient groups, provincial ministers and himself more time to understand the changes. "After five years, myriad policy proposals and many hundreds of hours of consultation, it would appear the pharmaceutical industry is simply not amenable to any measures that would further constrain its ability to sell patented medicines in Canada at free market prices," the acting chair of the agency's board at the time, Melanie Bourassa Forcier, wrote in the memo.

The minister's letter to the drug pricing regulator led to discord among board members and was quickly followed by the resignation of the acting chair, a board member and the agency's executive director.NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and health critic Don Davies are expected to hold a press conference about the memo Thursday morning.

 

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