Canadian firm Loses Drug Policy Challenge

The Divisional Court of Ontario, Canada, has rejected a claim by generic drug manufacturer Apotex stating that the province's Health Minister had exceeded her authority or acted unlawfully in May 1993 when she imposed a freeze on the prices of generic prescription products listed in the province's drug formulary as substitutes for branded drugs.

Apotex had brought the case after the province had rejected its application to increase the prices of 16 of its products in 1994.

Introducing the price freeze in the previous year, Ruth Grier, the Health Minister at that time, had told the generics manufacturers that if they increased their prices, their products' designations on the formulary as substitutes for branded medicines could be removed.