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

Patents

from the this-is-important dept

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….

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