(Ottawa) Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos was warned that drug companies had staunchly refused to commit to drug price reform before urging an independent federal agency to put the reform on hold in favor more consultations, according to a 2021 memo.
The New Democratic Party (NDP), which obtained the memo under the Access to Information Act and shared it with The Canadian Press, accuses Mr. Duclos of delaying meaningful reform to protect drug manufacturers.
“This Liberal government has chosen to continue to protect the profits of these highly profitable pharmaceutical industries,” New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh said Thursday.
“And we have real, concrete evidence to back that up,” he added.
The memo is a progress report from the acting chair of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) to the Minister of Health on the obstacles they were facing in bringing down drug prices.
The Review Board is an independent federal agency responsible for regulating the cost of patented drugs in Canada to ensure that they are not excessive, which includes reviewing the price of similar drugs in other countries.
In 2017, the government announced new rules to lower prices by increasing the number of countries Canada compares against. These changes were to be introduced in 2020, but were repeatedly delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic before taking effect last July.
The agency was consulting on the details associated with the new rule in November when Minister Duclos wrote to the interim president and suggested the process be put on hold to give pharmaceutical companies, patient groups, provincial ministers and to himself more time to understand the changes.
The 2021 memo suggests the health minister knew drug companies had been resistant to change, at least from the agency’s perspective.
“After five years, a myriad of policy proposals and several hundred hours of consultation, it would appear that the pharmaceutical industry is simply unwilling to take action that would further limit its ability to sell patented medicines in Canada at the free market,” said the agency’s then-acting board chair, Mélanie Bourassa Forcier, in the memo.
She said after 110 hours of meeting with members of the pharmaceutical industry to discuss the guidelines for the new rules, they “strongly refused to commit to the substance”.
The minister’s letter to the drug price regulator sowed discord among board members and was quickly followed by the resignation of the interim chair, a board member and of the agency’s executive director.
The review board ultimately decided to suspend the changes.
In a press briefing on Thursday, Mr. Singh claimed the memo contained “glaring red flags” and helped explain why Mr. Duclos urged the agency to end the changes. He also pointed to an increase in lobbying efforts by the pharmaceutical industry with the office of the federal health minister.
PHOTO JUSTIN TANG, THE CANADIAN PRESS
NDP MP Don Davies
NDP Health Critic Don Davies argued the on-hold reform would save Canadians some $3 billion on prescription drugs.
He pointed out that the memo made it “very clear” that the pharmaceutical industry would never accept anything less than free market prices. According to him, Mr. Duclos had this information in hand when he asked the board of directors to suspend the changes.
“The Minister of Health simply suspended these reforms because of pressure from the pharmaceutical industry,” Mr Davies lamented.
Jean-Yves Duclos did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but told the House of Commons health committee in April that he had asked the agency to take a break so that provinces, territories, pharmaceutical companies and patient groups have more time to understand the changes.
The letter was part of the minister’s legal obligation to provide comments on the proposed changes, he said.
Minister Duclos also said he met with members of the pharmaceutical industry on a range of topics, including drug prices, COVID-19, shortages of children’s drugs and other concerns.