Tag Archives: innovation

Canada’s Self-Defeating Attack on Innovation

By Philip Stevens & Mark Schultz Over the last decade, it’s become increasingly difficult for pharmaceutical companies to protect their intellectual property rights in Canada. Canadian courts have invalidated over 25 patents since 2005 because the inventor did not have proof that widely prescribed medicines performed exactly as predicted in the original patent application. Canada’s

Where is the innovation?

From Healthcare Management Forum Opinion by D. Wayne Taylor, Executive Director of The Cameron Institute and response from the Editor-in-Chief Dear Editor-in-Chief, There is little doubt that Canadian healthcare needs  innovation. This journal, to its credit, recently devoted an entire issue to that. But we missed the mark. I am not being critical of the authors

Trans-Pacific trade is a win-WIN-WIN

D. Wayne Taylor Policy Options, October 21, 2013 In a century when the need for innovative pharmaceutical advances remains urgent and the cost and time required for innovation are both growing, the very intellectual property system that has given the world almost all medical advances is under attack by the ill-informed around the world —

Canada must improve protection of IP to be part of free trade with EU

Canada is in the midst of negotiating a free trade deal with the EU known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) which would cover the free trade of goods and services between Canada and EU member states as well as a harmonized regime for the protection of intellectual property rights (IP). This has

Canada must improve protection of IP to be part of trans-pacific free trade

Negotiations began in 2007 for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement amongst countries, more or less, bordering on the Pacific Ocean. Canada, after having been an observer at first, formally joined the TPP on October 8, 2012. The TPP market (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US, and

Canada ranks poorly in protection of IP

The US Chamber of Commerce today released its International IP Index entitled Measuring Momentum. Even though Canada is a high income country, it does not compare well with its sister high income, English-speaking countries, namely, the US, the UK and Australia. In fact we are more comparable to middle income countries like Mexico, Malaysia and

Canadian Clinical Trial Summit: Starting the conversation

Saryeddine, T., Brimacombe, G., Laberge, N., Taylor, D.W., Kumar, R., Arts, K., Bennett, L., Ferdinand, M. 2011. This document is designed to introduce a conversation. Considering that the focus of the summit will be on action plan development, the organizers felt it may be helpful and efficient to summarize commonly known issues and assumptions that

Generic-drug ‘solution’ for Africa not needed

Opinion in the Hamilton Spectator February 3, 2011 Generic-drug ‘solution’ for Africa not needed Prices and patents are not the issue in getting medicines to people in developing countries Although it is commendable that Canadian Parliamentarians wish to do their part in saving lives around the world, private member’s Bill C-393, being debated in the

Knowledge-based jobs for health, wealth and security

What do miracle blood clot-busters, cold-water detergents, chlorine-free coffee filters, lighter-weight motor vehicles, vaccines, disease-resistant shrimp, and bio-degradable plastics all have in common?  They are all products of knowledge-based industries. Knowledge-based jobs are transforming the North American economy and society.  Increasingly, economies are measured by the contribution of knowledge to the gross domestic product; economic

Uncontrolled Spending Threatens Innovation

As proud as we are as Canadians, we and our European cousins must concede that the United States of America is the font of almost all the innovation that the world enjoys today. No where is this more true than in medicine. Almost all of the patented, innovative drugs that we use today have come