Taming the Gorilla

The furor over Canadian pharmacare is all about who should be paying for it. While an interesting issue for constitutional experts, perhaps, it leaves blindsided what ought to be the crux of the matter: how much do we pay for our drugs and how effective are they in relation to their cost? Both Ottawa and the provinces should focus their attention on that.

This becomes a particularly pressing question as we wait with trepidation for the world’s next super-bug to appear, as it almost certainly will. Sir Martin Rees, Britain’s Astronomer Royal, has announced a standing bet of $1,000 that either bioterror or bioerror will kill one million people by 2020. Will we have the drugs necessary to combat the next SARS? Will we be able to afford them?

Moreover, as our population ages, the chronic geriatric problems are emerging in full force: arthritis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s. Are there drugs that can genuinely combat these conditions, or are the major pharmaceutical...