Canadian House Approves Bill To Make It Easier To Supply Cheaper Generic Drugs To Developing Nations

from the this-is-important dept

Mon, Mar 14th 2011 4:48am — Mike Masnick

We've discussed a few times how the current patent regime is causing massive problems in poor and developing countries around the world, where simple and available medications would save many, many lives (which would also help those economies). Tragically, in our over-active belief in patents, governments in the developed world have argued, completely unconvincingly, that drug companies have to price drugs at ridiculous prices via monopolies, even in developing nations where people can't afford them, in order to make it worthwhile to invest in the drug. There is little actual evidence to support this claim, and in fact, basic common sense suggests there's little to support this. A few years back, Canada tried to deal with this issue by passing a law that would allow generic drug manufacturers to produce cheaper drugs for a specific list of developing nations. However, the process was full of red-tape, and involved negotiating with the patent holder (potentially multiple times). In the end, despite being in place for years, the law was actually used only once.

Some politicians in Canada have been pushing for a revamp of the law to make it much easier to get those generic drugs into developing nations, and thankfully the Canadian House has approved the bill. The Senate still has to vote on it, and it appears there are concerns about the likelihood of it getting approved there, but it's still notable that a drug bill aimed at getting around patents and helping developing nations even got this far....

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Filed Under: canada, developing nations, drugs, generic drugs

10 Comments

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Michael, 14 Mar 2011 @ 5:38am

Not likely now...
Our current government is pretty useless to anyone but Alberta and the very rich. Election soon though and back to reducing spending and fixing the Reform party mess.
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JS, 14 Mar 2011 @ 7:31am

How about cheaper drugs for us?
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 14 Mar 2011 @ 7:43am

Region Locking
So, a rich person in the 'developing' world will have access to cheaper drugs than a poor person in the US.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Mar 2011 @ 7:50am

It would really seem funny if Canada started sending cheap drugs to the U S A. But as time marches on, and the middle class is slowly destroyed by out sourcing and automation, who knows...
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NovaScotian, 14 Mar 2011 @ 7:51am

"However, the process was full of red-tape, and involved negotiating with the patent holder (potentially multiple times). In the end, despite being in place for years, the law was actually used only once." The Canadian Parliament is only marginally less influenced by "big Pharma" than the US is.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Mar 2011 @ 9:01am

@ChurchHatesTucker
See the title of article ...Canadian....Canada is not part of the usa and i pay 2$ regardless of the drugs cost for my medication.

TIS means they can sell generics overseas to nations whom were only able to pay for non generics and pay big time....
see article a few below about the 10$ dose becoming 1500$...IN THE USA.
that is what your govt is doing to you and the world trying to get a world wide tax on IP.

FAIL .....when people see jobs here because of it the game is up.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 14 Mar 2011 @ 11:21am

Re: @ChurchHatesTucker
Um, what exactly do you think you're responding to?
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Mikkel Paulson (profile), 14 Mar 2011 @ 6:41pm

It also bears mentioning that this is a private members' bill that was pushed through the House of Commons by the opposition parties against the objections of the ruling Conservative party. The vote did see some Conservative MPs voting in favour, but I doubt if it'll pass the Conservative-dominated Senate. (Unlike most votes in the House of Commons, this one wasn't �whipped�, which means that MPs weren't forced to vote along party lines. Notice that the Prime Minister couldn't be bothered to vote at all.)

You know what would help everyone? Eliminate patents on all pharmaceuticals in Canada and reallocate the billions saved in our health care system to medical research. Wham bam.

Step 1: Support the Pirate Party of Canada!
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kyle clements (profile), 14 Mar 2011 @ 7:46pm

Re:
Step 1: Support the Pirate Party of Canada!

I'm trying too, but I can't find an easy way to steal a free membership.

Actually paying my way into a pirate party seems antithetical to the cause.
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Android18, 15 Mar 2011 @ 4:44am

Hey
This should not even be issue needing approval
You should do all you can as a country and Company to deliver as much medicine to people of all countries for bottom line cost

This doesnt need to be an issue,
Your supposed to help people, its why we are Humane
We should unite and ban These corporations from exploiting humans for invisible dollars,
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