The Official Opposition Health Care critic, France G\u00e9linas, says the pervasiveness of kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies to pharmacies \u2014 designed to push their generics over those of competitors\u2019 \u2014 affirms Ontario\u2019s need for universal pharmacare, a prescription drug plan that covers everyone.<\/p>\n
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This weekend, CBC\u2019s investigative news program The Fifth Estate reported that the practice of drug companies paying pharmacies a fee to carry their generic drug products is allegedly rampant in the province, with consumers shouldering the burden of severely inflated costs. The practice is illegal in Ontario.<\/p>\n
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\u201cA parent who needs antibiotics for a sick child, a student dealing with asthma, or someone managing diabetes \u2014 all of them are forced to pay absurdly high generic drug costs because of years of costs being driven up by successive Conservative and Liberal governments \u2014 including Kathleen Wynne and Doug Ford \u2014 governments that refused to create a universal pharmacare plan,\u201d G\u00e9linas said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOntarians pay among the highest prices in the world for generic drugs. Wynne and Ford have stood by while drug companies and pharmacy chains profit on the backs of Ontario consumers. It\u2019s disgusting and illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In a filmed, undercover investigation of 17 Ontario pharmacies, the Fifth Estate found that all but one of the pharmacists openly asked about the \u201crebate\u201d they would get for putting a particular drug on their shelves. Several referred to a typical kickback being as high as 70 per cent of the drug\u2019s retail cost.<\/p>\n
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\u201cInstead of allowing the Wild West of drug pricing, under a pharmacare system, we\u2019d have the purchasing power of 14 million Ontarians,\u201d said G\u00e9linas. \u201cPharmacare will mean lower costs, less stress and better health for people. It\u2019ll mean no one in Ontario has to cut their pills in half to make the bottle last longer, or go without the medicine they need because they can\u2019t afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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SOURCE –\u00a0The Official Opposition Health Care critic, France G\u00e9linas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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