By Dr. Bettina Hamelin

When the federal government launched its Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Sector Task Force on March 18, it demonstrated that Ottawa is finally connecting two conversations that should never have been separated: how we build a stronger Canada, and how we ensure Canadians have access to the medicines they need.

As President & CEO of Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC)—representing 43 innovative pharmaceutical companies operating in this country—I’m proud to sit at that table. Not because it represents a win for our industry, but because it could represent a turning point for Canada.

There’s more to medicines than medicine

For decades, we’ve treated innovative medicines—the patented, breakthrough therapies that treat cancer, autoimmune disorders, and rare and infectious diseases—as a health expense to be minimized rather than a strategic asset to be cultivated. Yet evidence tells a different story. 

Innovative medicines make our population healthy, our workforce more productive, and our healthcare system more resilient. A recent study by Dr. Frank Lichtenberg at Columbia University found that sustained investments in innovative medicines reduced hospital days in Canada by 55 per cent in 2022, saving nearly $80 billion in hospital costs. 

The economic benefits are just as compelling. Canada’s pharmaceutical industry supports more than 110,000 high-value jobs and contributes at least $18.4 billion to the economy annually, reinvesting $3.2 billion back into Canada’s research and development. 

These are the kinds of health, economic, and cost-saving benefits a nation-building strategy should protect and expand. Few industries bring foreign direct investment and keep people out of hospital so they can drive other parts of the economy. Instead, Canada’s approach has been to push drug prices as low as possible. 

Drug affordability matters, but price alone is the wrong measure of value. People might be surprised to know it takes on average $3.5 billion in investment and 10 to 15 years of research and testing to develop a single new medicine, with no guarantee of success. When government agencies start negotiating prices with companies at a 70 to 90 per cent discounted rate, it reflects a system that’s fundamentally misaligned with the economics of innovation. 

What Canada needs now is a solution that balances drug and healthcare affordability with a viable innovation market, particularly during this period of global uncertainty and intensifying competition. 

Global drug policy shifts

The introduction of a most-favoured nation (MFN) drug pricing policy in the U.S., which aims to lower American prices and shift a greater share of innovation costs onto countries like Canada, has triggered a global chain reaction that’s influencing which countries get innovative medicines first. This move comes alongside President Trump’s recent executive order to impose a 100 per cent tariff on imported patented medicines and active ingredients. 

For Canada, this exposes a critical vulnerability: we have long benefited from U.S.-funded pharmaceutical innovation to keep domestic drug prices low. That imbalance has now become a line in the sand, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. 

Canada already ranks last in the G7 for timely access to innovative medicines, with only 18 per cent of globally available medicines reaching Canadians through public drug plans, compared to the OECD average of 28 per cent. Without decisive reforms, these gaps will widen.

A meaningful step in the right direction

The task force represents a unified, pan-Canadian approach to addressing these global drug policy challenges. For the first time in a long time, we have a table that brings together government and industry to co-create solutions for patients and industry alike.

We know what’s possible when the public and private sectors choose to work together. Since Ontario’s FAST program—Funding Accelerated for Specific Treatments—was announced last fall 2025, eight new life-extending cancer treatments have been fast-tracked to patients. That’s what the task force can help replicate on a national scale.

The opportunity is real. Canada offers several strategic advantages few markets can match: world-class researchers and academic institutions, a diverse population ideal for clinical trials, and rigorous drug safety and efficacy standards. But market conditions must be right for these advantages to translate into concrete outcomes. 

Quebec’s experience is an instructive example. In the 1990s, the province was a hub for drug research and development, but when the government abolished a key policy protecting the price of patented drugs in 2013, many companies left and took their investments with them. 

While countries around the world are actively competing for life sciences investment, Canada’s overly restrictive, price-focused reimbursement environment is holding us back. 

IMC’s calls to action

One of the most effective levers Canada can pull is to reform the way new medicines are evaluated, priced, and covered by public drug plans. This means adapting the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance’s pricing processes to global standards, addressing the limitations of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board to better reflect global market realities, and reviewing Canada’s Drug Agency’s health technology assessments, which can include punishing price reduction recommendations. 

To address equitable access, we must expand accelerated access pathways for innovative medicines across all provinces, modelled after Ontario’s FAST program. And we must discuss aligning Canada’s intellectual property protections with those of our U.S. and European trading partners during the upcoming review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement. 

Beyond these reforms, we also need to address constrained provincial budgets. That’s why IMC is calling on Ottawa to prioritize pharmaceutical innovation and Canada’s life sciences ecosystem as a nation-building imperative. Life sciences is like infrastructure. You invest up front and reap the benefits later.

This means multi-year, targeted federal investment to provinces, specifically for new, innovative medicines. The goal is to create predictable launch and drug supply conditions that increase Canada’s health sovereignty and national security, while reducing our vulnerability to global pressures.  

The work ahead is urgent—for patients waiting on treatments, for an industry deciding where to invest and launch its medicines, and for a country that can’t afford to fall further behind. The task force is expected to deliver its recommendations to Prime Minister Carney at the end of June. IMC is committed to ensuring they don’t just inform the conversation, but drive real change.

Dr. Bettina Hamelin is the President & CEO of Innovative Medicines Canada, the national association representing Canada’s innovative pharmaceutical industry.