Modern medicine is continuously evolving with new advancements, vastly improving the care that we can receive and expanding the length and quality of our lives. But Canadians are not receiving the full benefits of these new innovations, a new Fraser Institute study finds.
Looking at the approval process for new medicines in Canada, authors Bacchus Barua, Will Westcott, and Van Nghiem Vo find considerable delays in our system compared to the United States and Europe.
“Of the 218 drugs approved in both Canada and the United States between 2012/13 and 2018/19, approval was granted a median 289 (average 469) days earlier in the United States. Of the 205 drugs approved in both Canada and Europe, approval was granted a median 154 (average 468) days earlier in Europe.”
Reasons for these discrepancies include:
“Differences in market-investment attractiveness because of prevalent intellectual-property protection regimes, the size and sophistication of the potential market of consumers, regulatory controls on drug pricing, and the reimbursement policies practised by public and private insurers. Another reason, more directly related to regulatory activities, is the extra financial burden incurred through user fees and the costs associated with creating a submission for a particular agency.”
One way to mitigate these disadvantages is to recognize that the overly burdensome approach taken by Health Canada on regulatory approval is unnecessary, the authors argue.
Canadians are forced to wait, not receiving the benefits of new drugs and treatment, while our system merely duplicates the approvals being done about as efficiently but much earlier in America and Europe.
