Canada-EU pact 'will raise drug costs'
(OTTAWA) - A Canada-European Union free trade agreement that is currently being negotiated may lead to higher drug costs here, Canada's opposition warned Wednesday.
"Europe is asking that drug patents be prolonged by at least three years, which would push up the price of drugs with delays in the arrival on the market of generic drugs," New Democratic Party MP Anne Minh-Thu Quach told AFP.
"This would put added pressure on already tight healthcare budgets in this country," she said.
The opposition is urging the government to study the consequences of a free trade pact with the EU on healthcare costs to try and paint a more precise picture.
Canada and the 27-nation EU are expected to conclude a free trade deal next year.
A deal with the EU would be Canada's second-largest free trade pact, after the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Mexico, and the first to include access to municipal procurements.
However, environmentalists, farmers, auto workers and others have rallied against it.