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Pharma companies urge Trump administration to target Canadian drug pricing
(www.hilltimes.com)
A vial of insulin costs far more in the U.S. than it does in Canada.
Drug prices are set by Canada’s Patented Medicine Prices Review Board which sets price caps by comparing drug prices across a group of 11 countries. The US used to be included in the formula, but was removed from the group in 2022 — because US drug prices are an insane global outlier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patented_Medicine_Prices_Review_Board
A group of Pharma companies including Pfizer and Merck have asked the Trump administration to put pressure on Canada. They are accusing the country of unfair trade practices.
If wikipedia is to be believed, we might not be as far off as you'd think. One third of our pharmaceutical consumption is already domestically supplied, and the amount we export amounts to about 40% of our consumption. Put the two together, and suddenly there's 70% of our needs already met. Imports from non-us suppliers should be able to fill the gap while domestic production is ramped up.
Now obviously reality is going to be far more complex than this napkin math, but I'm just pointing out that our domestic production is not starting from zero, and is already at the scale where supplying our own relatively small market is not out of the question.
The real problem is on a per-drug basis. Canada has the ability to make 70% of its medicine on average. But doubtlessly it's making 500% of its own needs for some medications and 0% for others. Cut that supply off overnight, and a lot of people unlucky enough to be reliant on the 0% ones are going to die.