Pharma

Health Canada’s controversial ‘regulatory sandbox’: Enabling innovation or lowering the bar for safety?

Health Canada has a controversial plan for regulating new, complex health tech. Instead of the old vetting and approval process, a company and the agency would decide the standards as they go. Does this enable innovation or put patient safety at risk?

Pharmacare reform pits affordability against access to novel drugs

For many Canadians, important pharmaceuticals are too expensive. But initiatives by the Trudeau government and a federal regulator to combat this problem won't help Canadians access new, life-saving, but costly medicines. Just the opposite.

Episode 26 – Rapid Fire Metabolic Syndrome!

Episode 23 – Rapid Fire!

Biopharmaceuticals, Financialization & Nationalism in the Age of COVID-19

Canada spent a lot of money on a COVID-19 therapeutic that has been a flop. The deal reflects the financialized state of drug development and the nation-state's failure to stop it.

Canadians paying the price for failed drug-pricing policy

Canadian patients, scientists and health systems are paying the price for this failed policy experiment, which is not what our country needs at this critical moment.

Vaccines, prices and a pandemic

If the government is serious about ensuring access to prescription drugs and vaccines to all, it must stand up to pressure from Big Pharma on pricing reforms.

The fascinating history of Trump’s ‘game-changing’ COVID cure

Hydroxychloroquine was touted as a miracle cure for COVID-19 by Trump, then finished 2020 plagued with concerns about adverse cardiac events. But HCQ is a remarkable medication with a fascinating history.

Episode 20 – Rapid Fire Cardiology!

Pharmacare: A prescription for addressing racism we can actually fill

Pregnant women warned to avoid some pain-relief drugs

Should biosimilar drugs be artificially promoted in Canada?

Be wary of ‘game-changers:’ Use drugs wisely and safely

The government should not take over the manufacturing of critical care drugs

The issue of drug shortages is a critical one and deserves a sober, evidence-based policy discussion by governments and experts. Generic drug manufacturing should not be nationalized for three reasons.

The government must take over the manufacturing of critical care drugs

This pandemic, like the Spanish flu at the height of the Progressive era, is a chance for a burst of creativity in policy-making and a commitment to building new institutions. 

Vague recall process poses potential harm

We must address conflicts of interest to protect our integrity

New Tricks for Old Drugs? Canada must change how it accesses Essential Medicines

Shortage of drug puts some pregnant women at risk

Can cannabis reduce agitation in dementia patients?