Op-Eds
Big changes are afoot in the way patent drugs are priced in Canada. At present, Canada’s Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB), a federal agency, is responsible for setting maximum prices for patented drugs (i.e., pharmaceuticals, biologics and vaccines). The agency has been criticized for failing to rein in prices, which are higher than in some peer countries. This criticism is unfair: the tools the PMPRB was given to regulate drug prices when it was established in 1987 have become less effective over time.
To address this problem, the federal government has authorized the PMPRB to introduce new pricing regulations, now scheduled to come into force in January. We think this is the wrong strategy. Instead of relying on…
Every day, more and more Canadians are getting vaccinated, and every day, there is more and more hope that normal daily life and activities might resume soon. To enable international travel and accelerate the return of such activities at home, many countries are considering or have implemented “immunity passports” of some kind to people who pose a lower risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19 infection.
In Israel, where more than half of the population is fully vaccinated, “green pass” holders are either fully inoculated or have presumed immunity after recovering from infection. Iceland was the first country in Europe to issue “immunity passports” to those who have recovered from infection or been fully…
Gaps in access to healthcare have long been a challenge in Canada, but became a top priority in the midst of the COVID-19 infectious disease crisis. The existing labour supply and mix of professionals puts fundamental limits on the healthcare system’s capacity, as does the availability of the necessary infrastructure, tools and equipment for those professionals to provide care.
The pandemic exposed pre-existing gaps in Canada’s healthcare system in terms of preparedness, labour policies and the risks posed to and by providers, particularly those working in multiple locations or facilities. Expansions in virtual care, adaptations to clinical practices and expanding scopes of practice for some health professionals are all examples…
Targeted lockdowns could cut the pandemic's economic losses by billions - Financial Post Op-Ed
Vaccines are giving everyone hope that the COVID-19 global pandemic may soon allow us to return to our normal lives. That hope has been tempered by frustrations about vaccine rollout and fear of mutating variants and so almost all parts of the country remain in some kind of lockdown. But what strategy should we follow on lockdowns to get us through to what we hope is full inoculation? What we need is a tool that considers both health and the economy, not the false dichotomy that we must choose one over the other.
Research we have conducted for a C.D. Howe Institute paper using an epidemiological-economic model provides important insights to help guide us until a vaccine is widely available. The results we…
Of all the COVID-inspired clichés of 2020, “we can’t go back to how we were before” gets my vote for most trying.
Taken literally, it is empty. We can’t undo the deaths, restore students’ lost instruction, give young people the first jobs they didn’t get, erase the huge debts, enjoy the travel and human contact that didn’t happen. No, we can’t go back to 2019 — which is too bad.
Taken as an exhortation — “we shouldn’t go back to how we were before” — it is too often a prelude to magical thinking, a great leap to some environmental, economic or political nirvana previously out of reach. That is silly. A sick person who was never an athlete can dream of completing a triathlon. But their first task is to recover. In the same…
