The pharma industry warned that if proposed new prescription price guidelines go ahead, drug launches would be delayed and ‘Canadian patients will be deprived of potentially life-saving new medicines.’
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The pharma industry claims lower prescription drug prices will mean less access to new medication for Canadians. It’s an old threat that pits profits against patients’ rights to affordable drugs.
Generic drug names are assigned at the global level by the World Health Organization in conjunction with national naming authorities.
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Generic drug names are often long, but they can tell doctors what type of medicine it is and how it works. But it’s brand names that appear first and most prominently in Health Canada materials.
The level of evidence for withdrawing a drug does not appear to affect the pharma company’s response.
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When drugs are taken off the market because they are either unsafe or don’t work, do pharma companies admit that there are problems? Or do they deny the evidence?
Ethics are important to vaccination decisions because while science can clarify some of the costs and benefits, it cannot tell us which costs and benefits matter most to us.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
When making the decision whether to vaccinate children aged five to 11 against COVID-19, regulators in Canada must rely on sound ethics as well as sound science.
Advocating for decriminalization carries many benefits, including reducing the need for police involvement.
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Decriminalization is an important step in addressing the overdose crisis, but it is crucial that other approaches — like regulation — are also in place.
Despite monitoring the same drugs, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States issued the same drug warnings only seven per cent of the time over a 10-year period.
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Health Canada devotes far more resources to getting new drugs onto the market compared to making sure that drugs already being sold are safe.
A lab technician holds a vial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate during testing at the Chula Vaccine Research Center, run by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand on May 25, 2020.
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Will a vaccine for COVID-19 be safe? Animal testing, human clinical trials and post-approval surveillance give us good grounds to believe that a future approved vaccine will work and be safe.
Flags fly outside of Montréal City Hall in June 2018. Health Canada has suspended official languages rules on bilingual labelling in an effort to speed up the importation of certain disinfectant and cleaning products during the coronavirus pandemic.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sidhartha Banerjee
François Larocque, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa and Linda Cardinal, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
Seven million French-speaking Canadians shouldn’t have to decipher English-only labels during the pandemic. Ottawa must take into account the fundamental rights and safety of all Canadians.
Cannabis edibles like sour candy straws are now available for purchase and consumption, but the risks from overdosing are quite high.
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As cannabis candies and chocolates become widely available, sweeter edibles may be more appealing to youth. We need to work to minimize the potential health impacts.
When drug companies and drug regulators, such as Health Canada, sit down together at “pre-submission meetings” this may have a negative impact on public health.
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Drug companies have a job to do and so does Health Canada. When the relationship becomes murky, the public are at risk.
Research shows that six of 11 Health Canada scientific advisory committees had a majority of members with a direct or indirect financial interest.
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Health Canada must be unbiased and it must be seen to be unbiased – so that Canadians get the best possible value out of prescription drugs.
A customer holds up his receipt after being the first person to buy cannabis at the SpiritLeaf cannabis store in Kingston, Ont., on April 1, 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg
Federal officials have repeatedly claimed cannabis supplies are sufficient. But their own data suggest otherwise.
The failure of TV ads to explain the safety risks of over-the-counter drugs can leave people in the emergency department with liver damage or psychosis.
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It’s time Health Canada took back the regulation of drug advertising – to protect consumers.
Thousands of people are dying every year of opioid-related overdoses, in an epidemic that traces its roots to 1996 and the introduction of the prescription drug OxyContin. Here, prescription opioids are shown in Toronto during 2017.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy
Prescription drugs are policed by industry and Health Canada has never prosecuted a drug company for illegally marketing a drug.
Could universal pharmacare reduce excessive drug price hikes in Canada? Eric Hoskins, former Ontario Minister of Health, will chair a federal government advisory council to implement a national pharmacare plan. Hoskins is pictured here with federal Minister of Health Ginette Petitpas Taylor.
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The cost of a life-saving drug in Canada is rising by 3,000 per cent. A national pharmacare plan could bring order to this chaotic world of Canadian drug prices.
Health Canada is proposing a new system to fast-track urgent drugs for children, the elderly and those with serious or life-threatening conditions. This would rely on decisions made by regulators in other jurisdictions.
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Health Canada is proposing to allow some prescription drugs into the country with only ‘cursory clinical review.’ Here’s why we should be worried.
Health Canada’s intention to increase the fees drug makers pay for the drug approval process threatens to compromise drug safety and the health of the Canadian public.
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Health Canada proposes to increase fees to the pharmaceutical industry for prescription drug approval. This will compromise drug safety and is a risk to the health of the Canadian public.
Radon gas is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. Children are most at risk of exposure in homes, especially during the winter months.
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Radon is a radioactive gas that seeps into buildings through foundation cracks. It is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. And it only costs around $60 to test your home.
Egg donors, sperm donors and surrogates are critical participants and patients in the use of reproductive technologies - so why are their rights and heath repeatedly overlooked?
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Health Canada is drafting important regulations for assisted reproductive technologies. Initial documents treat egg donors and surrogates as little more than spare parts and walking wombs.
Professor, Research Chair in Language Rights, Faculty of Law | Professeur, Chaire de recherche Droits et enjeux linguistiques, Faculté de droit. 2021 Fellow, Fondation Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa