A member of a Canadian agency that has been working to rein in prices for prescription medicines has resigned and accused the government of failing to follow through on its commitment while acquiescing to pharmaceutical industry objections.
In a blistering letter, Matthew Herder stepped down from the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board in response to ongoing delays in implementing new regulations designed to update a decades-old framework for challenging prices set by drug companies. The regulations were originally scheduled to go into effect three years ago.
“Canadian health care is in crisis,” wrote Herder, who heads the Health Law Institute at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. “That the federal government is unwilling to support real change in a domain where its jurisdiction over patented medicines cannot be questioned, and those same medicines are the fastest-growing contributor to the rising costs of health care, is deeply disappointing.”
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