The board that oversees medicine prices in Canada and levies on big social media and online service platforms appear in submissions to the U.S. Trade Representatives review of 'unfair' foreign trading practices.
If wikipedia is to be believed, we might not be as far off as you’d think. One third of our pharmaceutical consumption is already domestically supplied, and the amount we export amounts to about 40% of our consumption. Put the two together, and suddenly there’s 70% of our needs already met. Imports from non-us suppliers should be able to fill the gap while domestic production is ramped up.
Now obviously reality is going to be far more complex than this napkin math, but I’m just pointing out that our domestic production is not starting from zero, and is already at the scale where supplying our own relatively small market is not out of the question.
The real problem is on a per-drug basis. Canada has the ability to make 70% of its medicine on average. But doubtlessly it’s making 500% of its own needs for some medications and 0% for others. Cut that supply off overnight, and a lot of people unlucky enough to be reliant on the 0% ones are going to die.
If wikipedia is to be believed, we might not be as far off as you’d think. One third of our pharmaceutical consumption is already domestically supplied, and the amount we export amounts to about 40% of our consumption. Put the two together, and suddenly there’s 70% of our needs already met. Imports from non-us suppliers should be able to fill the gap while domestic production is ramped up.
Now obviously reality is going to be far more complex than this napkin math, but I’m just pointing out that our domestic production is not starting from zero, and is already at the scale where supplying our own relatively small market is not out of the question.
The real problem is on a per-drug basis. Canada has the ability to make 70% of its medicine on average. But doubtlessly it’s making 500% of its own needs for some medications and 0% for others. Cut that supply off overnight, and a lot of people unlucky enough to be reliant on the 0% ones are going to die.