Life in Canada

CETA will result in higher drug costs for Canadians
A new CCPA report, by Dr. Joel Lexchin and Marc-André Gagnon, examines the impact of the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) on pharmaceuticals. The authors find that the tentative EU-Canada trade deal will further tilt the balance towards the protection of brand-name drug manufacturers and their profits and away from Canadian consumers—resulting in significantly higher drug costs for Canadians. The study also examines the latest revelations about the tentative trade agreement, and asserts that the CETA will seriously impact the ability of Canadians to afford quality health care.

Key Findings
On a per capita basis, Canadian drug costs are already the second highest in the world, after the United States. Canada also has one of the fastest rising drug costs per capita among OECD countries. This unwelcome situation is partly due to Canada’s industry friendly intellectual property policies, which include a generous pricing system and broad protection of brand-name pharmaceuticals.

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada will further tilt the balance towards the protection of brand-name drug manufacturers and their profits and away from Canadian consumers. Specifically, the agreement will:

Commit Canada to creating a new system of patent term restoration that will delay the entry of generic medicines by up to two years.

Lock in Canada’s current terms of data protection, making it difficult or impossible for future governments to reverse them.

Implement a new right of appeal under the patent linkage system that will create further delays for the entry of generics.

CETA will not affect the intellectual property rights regime in the European Union
—
The changes will only affect Canada.