Articles by Nigel Rawson and John Adams

May 24 2022 — Nigel Rawson and John Adams — National Newswatch — Times Colonist columnist Lawrie McFarlane and CBC’s reporter Kelly Crowe wrongly claim that the federal Liberals sold out Canadians to Big Pharma when Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced the government’s decision to cancel most of its revisions for the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB). McFarlane and Crowe, together with anyone else who believes the government conceded to the industry, […]

May 16 2022 — Nigel Rawson and John Adams — National Newswatch — In April 2022, just five months after granting approval for use of Covaxin, a COVID-19 vaccine developed and manufactured in India, the World Health Organization (WHO) publicly warned United Nations agencies against procuring the vaccine. An inspection of a Covaxin production facility revealed deficiencies in what are called good manufacturing practices (GMP) – standards that must be met to ensure medicines are […]

Dec 15 2021 — Nigel Rawson and John Adams — National Newswatch — Yet another academic report claims pharmaceutical costs are soaring in Canada due to new innovative costly medicines. The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) also recently released its annual trends in national health expenditure reporting that drugs constitute the second largest class of spending (14 percent) well behind hospitals (25 percent) but just ahead of physicians (13 percent). These […]

Sep 9 2021 — Nigel Rawson and John Adams — National Newswatch — In his National Newswatch commentary, Dr. Raza, another Canadian academic from that bastion of red socialism, argues for a national pharmacare program to be made affordable by drastically reducing drug prices by federal regulation. He uses data from an Angus Reid survey conducted with four academics from the Universities of British Columbia and Toronto and Carleton University who […]

Mar 11 2021 — Nigel Rawson and John Adams — National Newswatch — The 2019 federal budget raised hope for Canadians living with rare diseases by proposing to invest up to $1 billion over two years starting in 2022-23, with up to $500 million per year ongoing, in a national strategy for high-cost drugs for rare diseases. As a response to the recommendation of the Advisory Council on […]

Oct 14 2020 — Nigel Rawson and John Adams — National Newswatch — The federal government intends to drastically transform the rules of its tribunal that sets ceiling prices for new drugs and vaccines in Canada in January. Guidelines will be released imminently for how the new price controls will work. Key elements of the government’s plan have been strongly criticized by patients, drug developers and analysts since […]