On average, pharma companies in those nations shoveled almost 22% of their sales into R&D in 2013, the report said. ![]() The price review board compared that to the countries used as benchmarks for determining drug prices in Canada: the U.S., U.K., Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Germany and France. The rate shrunk to 4.5% of $17-billion in sales last year, from 5.3%, for all companies selling patented drugs, and to 5.4% from 6.6% for Rx&D members, according to the annual report. The group’s members, who represent 72% of patented drug sales, kept the promise initially, reaching the goal by 1993, exceeding it, and then steadily falling back after 2002. ‘It’s fairly clear that is in a sense a cash grab … The one thing it doesn’t do is lead to any serious commitment to conduct new research’ No penalties were instituted, though, for failing to meet the target. It was Rx&D - under a different name - that made the commitment in 1987 to boost research spending from just under 5% then to 10% of sales, in exchange for an extension of patent protection implemented by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s government. The deal would grant up to two years extra monopoly to account for the time a drug spends in the approval process. Meanwhile, provisions in the Canada-Europe free-trade agreement are expected to give the firms longer still to sell their drugs without competition from much-cheaper generic copies. Rather than $652-million, the companies actually spent $1-billion in 2013, Mr. The group also charged that the review board underestimated its members’ level of investment in research by an “alarming” amount, saying the government is using an inaccurate definition for what qualifies as R&D spending. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. “We want to reverse that trend, but that will not happen in the absence of strong public policy.” “Canada is not globally competitive when it comes to its intellectual property regime and its regulatory system,” Russell Williams, the association’s president, said in an email response to questions. And that is largely the fault of government, it suggested. The main industry trade organization - Canada’s Research-based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D) - said Thursday the declining numbers reflect the challenges this country’s life-sciences sector face generally in competing internationally. “It’s fairly clear that is in a sense a cash grab … The one thing it doesn’t do is lead to any serious commitment to conduct new research in Canada.” ![]() ![]() “It is striking how the industry has for years now failed to meet its commitment,” said Michael Geist, an expert in intellectual-property law at the University of Ottawa. It is more evidence that the industry’s long-standing attempt to link patent protection with research investment holds little water, say experts in the area.
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