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Trudeau’s Drug-Price Overhaul Is Set to Cost Drugmakers Billions

  • Canada revamps drug-pricing regime for first time since 1987
  • Cheaper medicines could potentially impact U.S. market as well
An employee works in the pharmacy drugstore in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

An employee works in the pharmacy drugstore in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

Photographer: Cole Burston/Bloomberg

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is overhauling Canada’s drug-pricing regime for the first time in more than 30 years, a move that could cost drugmakers billions in sales and raise the stakes in a U.S. debate over prescription costs.

Trudeau, who is trying to fend off a conservative challenger in an election in October, has pushed through new regulations to drop the U.S. from a basket of countries Canada uses to cap domestic drug prices. The move is part of a wider revamp that marks “the biggest step to lower drug prices in a generation,” said Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor.