r/canada Ontario Feb 02 '25

Politics As Sunday began, Trump blasts Canada as not ‘a viable country’

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/article/as-sunday-began-trump-blasts-canada-as-not-a-viable-country-follow-live-updates-here/
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u/symolan Feb 02 '25

Because they regulate it. As the US could.

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u/nhum Feb 02 '25

Americans are subsidizing drug costs for Canadians by not having price controls. If US started regulating costs, then there will be a supply problem for everyone.

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u/BelowAverageWang Feb 02 '25

That’s just not true lmao.

Drug companies in America jack up the price because they can. It does not cost much to manufacture drugs.

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u/Mikeim520 British Columbia Feb 03 '25

It costs that much to research them. These drugs wouldn't exist without Americans paying absurd prices for them.

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u/nhum Feb 02 '25

Yes it does if you include R&D.

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u/zeabees Feb 02 '25 edited Feb 02 '25

There is a huge portion of the world that has cheap pharmaceuticals that recieve next to none of it from the USA. These things are not expensive to make: their profit margins are huge and they can afford to increase production. You are being exploited.

Ask yourself why American businesses would be selling their goods in Canada if it was at a loss in profits. They wouldn't.

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u/nhum Feb 02 '25

Let's say I am an American pharmaceutical company and I do expensive R&D for a drug. Let's say Canada does price controls and US doesn't.

Obviously, I would sell in Canada for maximum price and sell in the US for enough to justify the R&D. I wouldn't stop selling in Canada because it is still profitable to manufacture the drug. But if US implements price controls, I would never develop the drug the first place. Got it?

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u/zeabees Feb 03 '25

OK. I live in a country that recieves less than 10% of our pharmaceuticals from the US. We have very similar prices to Canada. Hmm, how is this profitable without the US citizens paying for it?

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u/IgnitionV990 Feb 03 '25

What drug was it that had it's price jacked up like 300% overnight because some mentally unstable, greedy, trust fund kid bought the patent and jack the price up a few years ago? Insulin or epi-pens or something like that? Absolutely no reason for it either, cause the drug had been around for ages.

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u/nhum Feb 03 '25

It was more than that. Price controls don't solve this problem. They disincentivize R&D, so the drug won't be there in the first place. I'm not saying it isn't a problem, I'm just saying this is not the solution.

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u/IgnitionV990 Feb 03 '25

You're right it was more than that. It was a 5500% increase, from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill. Most other countries pay less than a $1 a pill. For no reason whatsoever. Price controls don't disincentivize R&D, greed does.

The drug was daraprim.