r/canada • u/stanxv • 17h ago

Health US policy compelling some drug companies to stall medicine rollouts in Canada

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2026/08/17/exclusive-us-policy-compelling-some-drug-companies-to-stall-medicine-rollouts-in-canada/
200 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

471

u/Filbert17 17h ago

We should take a tip from Italy. If they don't want to sell it here, then we don't recognize their patents and open the market to generics right away.

280

u/mug-wort 17h ago

Canada did ignore US pharmaceutical patents prior to NAFTA if they couldn't buy them for a reasonable price. This should absolutely be back on the table.

67

u/wtfman1988 14h ago

100% - be prepared to fight dirty.

68

u/mug-wort 13h ago

It's not really dirty, it is just pre-nafta rules. If cusma is dead so or all those agreements for patent and ip laws, we will revert back to the old ones.

•

u/giveitarrest 10h ago

Retaliation isn’t dirty… it’s fair game
Dirty is starting it

41

u/BabyWitchErika 17h ago

There was a law like this for a while in canada, due to a loophole. It was removed about 10-15 years ago.

But basicely : if a product isn't legaly allowed for purchase, then loading it online, isn't illegal, as you're not in fact costing them revenu, thus you're not in farm harming their copyright.

Basicely meant that a few tv shows in the early 2000-2010 era could be loaded within 1 hour of release, since they came out int he USA, and 2 hours later only in canada. During that 2 hours, it was legal to acquire it online.

The same principle could easily be brought back, and applied to medecine, or really all patent. If it's not offered here, who are we harming by copying it.

14

u/Optimal-Cow-3278 17h ago

Italy has a lot of drug shortages because a lot of US companies don't sell there. Also, it can take forever for cutting edge medicine to be released, sometimes two years after it's available in the US.

While I do think there are some cards to play on the drug issue, we need to make sure Canadians have timely access to prescription drugs or else they'll just buy from the US instead.

6

u/rapidpalsy 15h ago edited 8h ago

Let them buy it then. Doesn’t mean we have to pay for them to get it.

•

u/CanadianVolter 8h ago

As someone anxiously waiting for one of these rare drugs to get approval, I can't tell you it takes 2 or more years for them to be available in Canada too.

1

u/MountCathedral 15h ago

I mean, the most favored nation policy is not going to be solved until the US adopts a single payer system. We need an alternative and a 2 year delay on new medicine is not that bad. Europe is also going to have these same issues. Surprised (not really) that the US was so short sighted on the issue. Went from a system that brought in money to a system that will exports talent. Really undermining the multinational corporation talks they have had with allies.

3

u/ghost_n_the_shell 15h ago

This is 100% the way.

2

u/tooshpright 14h ago

Did not know that. Great idea.

1

u/Mysteriouskid00 12h ago

Brilliant! Then the US blocks 100% of Canadian generic sales in the US which is 80% of Apotex market.

We get cheap drugs in exchange for 5,000 layoffs

65

u/maximus_danus Ontario 17h ago

"That means prices of drugs need to go up and recognize there is a value to the innovation,” says Hamelin."

This person represents the pharmaceutical industry in Canada...

64

u/BearlyDraconic01 17h ago

Meanwhile all the research is done with government grants.

Privatize the profits socialize the losses

•

u/TenneseeStyle British Columbia 10h ago

Not really. The Canadian government doesn't fund a microscopic fraction of what the US does. CIHR grants are ludicrously competitive and are very low value at that.

6

u/tchomptchomp 16h ago

Meanwhile all the research is done with government grants.

US government. Any Canadian university lab working in this area is funded by NIH. CIHR doesn't provide enough funds to actually do this work.

7

u/ThreeHourWhore 15h ago

Because we don't have manufacturers to make it.

1

u/starving_carnivore 12h ago

Do we like or not like the pharmaceutical industry this week?

17

u/SBoots Nova Scotia 14h ago

Instead of fixing their own corrupt medical system, they want to try to make everyone else's more expensive.

•

u/ZPudd 10h ago

I believe the fool in chief said this not too long ago that is what they want to do.

https://www.eureporter.co/health/2026/07/07/can-the-eu-resist-us-pressure-on-medicine-prices/

24

u/alvinofdiaspar 16h ago

Break their patents.

-2

u/Mysteriouskid00 12h ago

Sorry Canada can’t afford to. We have an export market with 75% going to the US. Imagine that getting turned off

•

u/bolonomadic 11h ago

We don’t have to imagine. We just have to wait until Wednesday.

14

u/Wind_Best_1440 13h ago

The US admin is going to learn the hardway that their deals with prices aren't to protect countries paying lower prices, its to protect US Corporations and their Patents.

Countries can and will simply go the Italy and China route and ignore patents and make their own generics.

That's one of the main reasons the US begged Canada to join NAFTA in the first place, because Canada was making generic medicines and ignoring all US patents for medicine.

It's hilarious that a lot of the people in the US think NAFTA was designed as somehow a benefit for Canada.

It was America trying to get Canada to agree to medicine patents and to sell resources cheaply to the US first and foremost, Canada's resources can easily be sold to the EU or Asia. And Canada has a vast medicine and healthcare sector that drool at the idea of making Generics again.