Disparity between investment reports as Canada's Rx&D warns of 'serious challenges'

Canada’s trade group Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D) has acknowledged that the environment for life sciences in Canada is facing “serious challenges” as it tries to compete on the world stage.

The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board’s (PMPRB) 2013 Annual Report was tabled yesterday in the House of Commons.

Russell Williams, president of Rx&D, said: “The level of investment in pharmaceutical R&D is indeed decreasing, and some of the reasons for this is that Canada is not globally competitive when it comes to its intellectual property regime and its regulatory system. We want to reverse that trend, but that will not happen in the absence of strong public policy.”