To combat American rates, Canada should suspend US drug patents, says the expert

Now, when the Trump administration has imposed 25% rates for goods in Canada, the Canadian government charges rates instead. But other measures are also examined and an idea that the Canadian government should consider is the suspension of patent rights owned by American companies, including pharmaceutical companies, according to Richard Gold, professor of law and medicine at McGill University, specialized in intellectual property issues.

As he sees, the pharmaceutical industry would have a lot to lose if the Canadian government will take such a step and therefore would be forced to lobby to the White House to return the tariffs. Of course, there are a lot of variables involved in such calculations. I talked with gold about this idea, which he floated a few weeks ago in Canada and what will need to happen. This is an edited version of our conversation.

So where does this proposal come from?

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