Patented Medicine Prices Review Board

Um, but that's, that's only the, the start of the whole process.

Um, so once a drug is approved by Health Canada, more specifically Health Canada's, uh, Pharmaceutical Products Directorate, it's then evaluated by the Patented Medicines Prices Review Board, the PMPRB, um, which then determines whether the price that the drug company is asking is excessive or not.

And there's actually kind of an interesting backstory there.

Um, so back when the first free trade agreement was being negotiated between the US and Canada, the US, unsurprisingly, um, demanded that US pharmaceuticals have access to the Canadian market, along with, mm, pretty significant patent protection.

And we all know how expensive American drugs are, uh, compared with pretty much any other country.

Um, and so to ensure that we didn't end up paying American prices for these drugs, um, Canada insisted on setting up the PMPRB to keep prices to a quote-unquote reasonable cost.

And of course, what reasonable means has essentially been, uh, you know, a contest between the PR-- um, PPPRB and Big Pharma ever since.

So we've got Health Canada, and then you've got the PMPRB.

And so being able to trust your colleagues in this is one of the best things that I love, and that colleagues trust me that we can actually do stuff.

I do a lot of work in health policy, all the way from Health Canada through all the steps of drug approvals in Canada, from the PMPRB.

These are just acronyms I'm saying, but nevertheless, the PMPRB, Canada's drug agency, the PCPA, and as it gets into all the jurisdictions, these are all processes.

By the way, I teach courses in this.

I can get down and delve into that at another time.