Last week, the federal government announced the members of the Committee of Experts who will oversee the national pharmacare program – and the news is good.
Thanks to our collective efforts, the committee will be free of corporate interference—a crucial step toward ensuring a program focused on people’s health over private profits, and another major victory for defenders of single-payer pharmacare.
After failing to block pharmacare legislation, pharmaceutical and insurance lobbyists had been clamoring for a seat on this committee to undermine the program from within. We are pleased that Health Minister Holland opted for independent experts, ensuring corporate interests won’t derail this essential program.
In recent weeks, Council of Canadians supporters sent nearly 7,000 letters to Minister Holland and his top advisors, calling for a committee free of corporate conflicts of interest. Our collective voices helped shut out Big Pharma.
Over the next year, the Committee of Experts will offer advice and guidance on how to operate and finance a national, universal, single-payer pharmacare program in Canada. Its advice is expected to serve as a roadmap for expanding pharmacare beyond diabetes drugs like insulin and contraceptives to a wider list of medicines.
Here is a look at its members:
Dr. Nav Persaud, the chair of the committee, spoke at our Toronto town hall in May 2023 and is a strong proponent of public, single-payer pharmacare.
Professor Steve Morgan has been researching and advocating for public, single-payer pharmacare since the 1990s and was one of the experts for several of our BC pharmacare town halls.
Linda Silas is the head of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, a close ally of the Council of Canadians at the national level in the fight for pharmacare.
Dr. Stéphane Ahern, a doctor from Quebec who has worked with the provincial drug plan’s drug evaluation panel, and Amy Lamb, an Indigenous pharmacist, both appear to be independent and unentangled by the kinds of conflicts of interest that we feared might characterized the committee.
This win didn’t come easy, and the risk of the Committee getting stacked with phony experts in the pocket of industry was very real. We’ve seen the Trudeau government cave to industry pressure on pharmaceutical policy in the not-so-distant past.
Look no further than what happened with the Patented Medicines Price Review Board (PMPRB), where the Liberals’ ambitious plans to lower drug prices were announced, delayed, watered down, and finally put on ice. When the independent members of the PMPRB resigned in protest in February 2023, they were replaced by a series of pro-pharma appointees.
As I pointed out in my Canada Health Watch op-ed, Big Pharma, the insurance companies, and corporate pharmacy owners like Shoppers and Sobey’s were clamouring for “seats at the table,” to help design the future of a program they would love to destroy.
After the committee members were announced, Innovative Medicines Canada—the country’s most powerful lobby for Big Pharma—said in a statement that it was “disappointed to see that, once again, the government has excluded the pharmaceutical industry’s voice from important discussions on pharmacare in Canada.”
Yes, let’s all shed a tear for the poor, silenced voice of Big Pharma.
This is a win we should all celebrate, but the fight isn’t over. The provinces now need to sign onto the program, and we must keep up the pressure to ensure that they do.
Will you support our work by making a contribution now to boost the fight for national pharmacare?
Stay tuned as we’ll be sharing next steps soon.
Nikolas Barry-Shaw
Nikolas is the Trade and Privatization Campaigner for the Council of Canadians and author of the book “Paved with Good Intentions.”
