• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, October 10, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Universal public coverage of essential medicines would improve access, save billions

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
February 27, 2017
in Science News
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Publicly funding essential medicines could cover the cost of nearly half of all prescriptions in Canada, removing financial barriers for Canadians while saving $3 billion per year.

The new research, led by Steve Morgan of the University of British Columbia and Dr. Nav Persaud of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, was published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal

"Universal pharmacare has been long-promised but undelivered in Canada, in part because of concerns about where to start," said Morgan, a professor in the school of population and public health. "We show that adding universal public coverage of essential medicines to the existing system of drug coverage in Canada is a significant and feasible step in the right direction."

The researchers identified a list of 117 essential medicines that included antibiotics, insulin, heart medication, anti-depressants, oral contraceptives and more. They found that this list accounted for 44 per cent of all prescriptions written in 2015, and up to 77 per cent of all prescriptions when therapeutically similar medications were considered.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) says these essential medicines should be available to everyone who needs them," said Dr. Persaud, a family physician who led the team that developed the essential medicines list "We adapted the WHO's list based on clinical practice in Canada."

Currently, Canadians rely on a patchwork of private and public coverage that leaves millions facing high out-of-pocket costs for drugs. Recent research has shown that many Canadians do not take medications as prescribed because they cannot afford the out-of-pocket cost.

"Access to medicines can be the difference between life and death," said Dr. Persaud. "There are treatments for HIV and heart disease that save lives but only when they are in the hands of people who need them."

Morgan and Dr. Persaud propose that governments purchase the essential medicines in bulk for all of Canada, which they found would save patients and private drug plans $4.3 billion per year while costing government only an additional $1.2 billion per year. The total net savings for Canadians would be $3.1 billion per year.

"A program of this kind is a feasible way of improving the overall health of Canadians while dramatically lowering drug costs," said Morgan. "Other countries that do similar things pay 40 to 80 per cent less for these essential medicines."

Dr. Persaud is leading a clinical trial with patients in four Family Health Teams in Ontario to compare the health outcomes and health-care use of people who received the free essential medicines and those who did not.

###

Contacts:

Corey Allen
UBC Public Affairs
Tel: 604-822-2644
Cell: 604.209.3048
Email: [email protected]

Leslie Shepherd
St. Michael's Hospital
Tel: 416-864-6094
Cell 416-200-4087
Email: [email protected]

Media Contact

Corey Allen
[email protected]
@UBCnews

http://www.ubc.ca

############

Story Source: Materials provided by Scienmag

Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

LED Light Targets and Destroys Cancer Cells While Protecting Healthy Tissue

October 10, 2025
Upcoming Release: The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Ahead-of-Print Highlights – October 10, 2025

Upcoming Release: The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Ahead-of-Print Highlights – October 10, 2025

October 10, 2025

Wirth Named Fellow of the American Physical Society

October 10, 2025

New Tool Enables Single-Cell Analysis of Specific Genetic Variants

October 10, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    1195 shares
    Share 477 Tweet 298
  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    102 shares
    Share 41 Tweet 26
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    96 shares
    Share 38 Tweet 24
  • Revolutionizing Optimization: Deep Learning for Complex Systems

    83 shares
    Share 33 Tweet 21

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

LED Light Targets and Destroys Cancer Cells While Protecting Healthy Tissue

Upcoming Release: The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Ahead-of-Print Highlights – October 10, 2025

Wirth Named Fellow of the American Physical Society

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 63 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.