Drug costs "not to blame" for Canada's health care spending growth

A new study from the Canadian free market think-tank, the Fraser Institute, has concluded that government spending on prescription drugs is not responsible for the lack of financial sustainability of Canada's health care system. Brett Skinner, the Institute's director of health, pharmaceutical and insurance policy research and author of the report, said: "unsustainable growth in government spending on health is a result of the flawed design of government health and drug insurance programs, not the price of medical treatment or the introduction of new medical technologies like patented drugs."

In an article published by the Montreal French-language newspaper, La Presse, Mr Skinner went further, claiming that "public health expenditure would be sustainable, if only drug prices were in question." He added that the more one examines the issue of drug costs in relation to the financial viability of the Canadian health care system, the less credible arguments in favor of blaming drug costs become.