SaskPharm

The health care crisis is a constant presence in the media and the political discourse of the day. Costs are surging at a rate rivaled only by the increasing demand for timely, state-of-the-art services. We are told time and again that Canadians value Medicare highly for both practical and philosophical reasons. However, the ongoing crisis has eroded commitment to and trust in this cherished institution.

There are constant cries for innovation and alternatives. Some of these initiatives preserve the principles of the Canadian Health Act, such as increased investment in Primary Health Care and Prevention or Alberta’s innovative Western Canada Waiting List Project. Others, such as Alberta’s short-lived Third Way proposals or Quebec MRI clinics, turn to the private sector for potential solutions.

If we are serious about maintaining our single-payer, publicly-funded health care system, we need to stop simply defending medicare as it is. We need to expand and improve it to address today’s challenges.

I propose the creation of SaskPharm: a Crown Corporation that produces generic drugs.

Prescription drugs are the fastest growing expense in health care. Individuals and governments spend billions annually on pharmaceuticals. SaskPharm could provide drugs to Saskatchewan Health, greatly decreasing the cost of drug purchases. These savings could be allocated to other aspects of the health care system such as equipment and personnel, or reinvested into research and development. If prescriptions of SaskPharm-produced drugs were sold to the public at a moderate profit, somewhere between cost and the price of equivalent drugs from existing manufacturers, savings could be passed on to consumers while still providing operating and expansion capital. Medications could also be sold to other provinces and jurisdictions, along the lines of existing deals the provincial government has made with generic pharmaceutical companies, providing savings to other provincial governments while creating further revenue streams for SaskPharm.

A Crown Corporation like SaskPharm would provide jobs in research, medicine, information technology, commerce and numerous other spin-off sectors, such as new markets for agricultural crops that could be used for medication production. This economic niche is the sort of innovation that Saskatchewan needs to retain our young people and attract professionals and businesspeople from elsewhere. Saskatchewan can continue its leadership role in health care by becoming leaders in production and development of new medications. The University of Saskatchewan, with Innovation Place, VIDO, the Canadian Light Source and the Academic Heath Science Centre, is an ideal nest for this sort of development.

As SaskPharm establishes itself in the production and sales of generic pharmaceuticals, there is potential to move into Research and Development of new drugs. This is perhaps the most exciting and elegant aspect of this initiative. Other pharmaceutical companies profit only through sales. If people stop getting sick, they stop making money. SaskPharm, as an arm of the provincial government, as the property of the people of Saskatchewan, would profit by making or keeping people healthy. There would be a built-in incentive to create drugs specific to the health needs of the Saskatchewan people, such as new ways of monitoring or treating diabetes, or a cure for Multiple Sclerosis. This would free up provincial funds for other priorities. There would also be great potential for revenue generation through sales of original SaskPharm medications which could be patented and sold to other jurisdictions.

The New Democratic Party has been successful in managing Saskatchewan’s finances and keeping the people’s priorities at the forefront. This sort of steady governance is what a province needs, but it fails to capture the imagination of the electorate. The bold step forward that SaskPharm represents could revive enthusiasm for Saskatchewan solutions to social problems, and for the Social Democratic roots of the party producing them.

Clearly, though, this sort of innovation is not without its challenges. It will face detractors who say that Crown Corporations are an old way of doing things and the private sector is a far more efficient way to provide economic growth and health care solutions. The current government’s attitude toward the Crowns makes this an even more difficult environment in which to propose change.

The greatest challenges, including start-up cost and backlash from the pharmaceutical industry, are daunting to say the least. But they are certainly no greater than the risks faced by our political predecessors when they introduced Medicare. This is a different time, to be sure, but there is a growing appetite for inventive, evidence-based solutions in public policy. SaskPharm is a homegrown way of making health care work for the people of Saskatchewan.