Why drug approval in Canada should not rely on foreign regulators

http://theconversation.com/why-drug-approval-in-canada-should-not-rely-on-foreign-regulators-273693

52 points · 10 comments · view on lemmy.world

10 Comments

melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 158d (4 replies)

Why would it?

Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 158d (3 replies)

Because it was cheaper to rubber stamp based on US rubber stamping.

MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 158d

Cheaper on paper, they were an utter pain in the ass sometimes.

melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 157d (1 reply)

I'm surprised that they'd be less rigourous, especially after thalidomide. Maybe not too surprised I guess...money talks.

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 157d

I’m surprised that they’d be less rigourous, especially after thalidomide

They are careful to not approve dangerous drugs, but they are approving drugs that don't work.

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 157d

Timely. Health Canada used to second guess the FDA, but now they are rubber stamping FDA approvals of insanely expensive drugs that don't work.
I'm a biomedical researcher who works with biotechs, drug companies and I have yet to understand what the 10,000 people who work at Health Canada actually do. We even started allowing drug marketing to consumers which is illegal in Canada.

Quebec has had enough and started refusing to pay for $400,000/yr drugs that do nothing.

Similarly, HC approved Leqembi, which is not only ineffective, but can lead to brain hemorrhage. . But the CDN formulary is refusing to pay, so why did HC approve it?

Canada is spending over $45B/yr on drugs, many of the most expensive do actually nothing. But the governments (all of them last 25 years) refuse to invest in CDN-based drug discovery and would rather pay US corporations.

Canada Healthcare spending: $372B a year, $45B of that on drugs.

CIHR total budget, for all diseases, including cancer, $1.4B. 0.26% . THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF STUPID.

Carney is spending like a drunk sailor on war machines, but next to nothing on biomedical research. Trudeau was even worse, in the middle of a pandemic, he cut budgets by not even keeping with inflation.

SMA is a rare disease (1 in 10,000) , but the treatment for one patient is $2.4M, and Canada won't fund a single researcher on this disease.

FreeBooteR69@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 158d

Let's not even look at the FDA data.

Zacpod@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 157d (2 replies)

Some places are OK to take guidance from... just not the USA.
Guidance. Not rubber stamp. E.g. "The UK thinks this is OK. Let's look at the evidence and decide if we agree. "

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 157d (1 reply)

Some places are OK to take guidance from… just not the USA.

Very quietly, the FDA fired one of their directors last November for trying to solicit bribes. Not a Trump thing, this was going on before Trump.

Zacpod@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 156d

And they caught and fired him. Under Trump he'd get a promotion. Though I do agree the FDA has been crap for a while, well before Trump. It's been a Bayer rubber stamp for decades.