According to a story from sectorpublishingintelligence.co.uk, a study from the Fraser Institute suggests that the Canadian government’s initiative to more closely control the pricing of drugs could place access to treatments for rare diseases in jeopardy. The Fraser Institute styles itself as a nonpartisan organization, but it has traditionally released reports which favor conservative, libertarian policies.
Dr. Nigel Rawson, who authored the report, says that the main concern is that more strict drug pricing regulations reduce the incentive for pharma companies to develop therapies for rare diseases. Typically, rare disease drugs are sold at a high price and can often be expensive to design and produce. Therefore, when drug prices are all regulated to a lower level, it is more difficult for these companies to profit.
The report also cites other weaknesses of the Canadian system that could further exacerbate the problem. There are already a number of rare disease treatments that Canadians do not have regular access to even though they have gained approval in the US and Europe. In addition, the country has not developed orphan drug laws which provide incentives for the development of rare disease treatments. Price limitations may discourage many companies from marketing their drugs in Canada at all, including some rare disease treatments.
While there could be some truth to the argument that the Fraser Institute is using, the source article, and the argument itself, still leaves some questions unanswered.
What the article never mentions is that the reason the Canadian government wants to regulate drug pricing is, most likely, to improve access to treatment. So while the institute can say that there are more incentives for companies to develop rare disease drugs in the US for example, is access to these drugs actually better? While there are more drugs approved in the US than in Canada, health costs, including drug prices, are a major concern for Americans, especially chronically ill ones…and the companies can price drugs however they see fit, which means stratospheric prices. That is a barrier to treatment for a lot of people.
The Fraser Institute’s argument may be more concerned with the future of rare disease drug development in Canada than with patient access itself. When two factions (The Fraser Institute versus the Canadian government) argue that doing one thing (regulating prices) will result in opposite outcomes (decreasing access versus increasing access to drugs), it is safe to say that one of these factions could be misinformed or dishonest.
