The Trump Administration announced in July it will allow Americans to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, including penicillin treatments for diabetes. Only one problem: Canada develops few drugs. Most that are used in the country actually come from multinational companies, mostly American. It is impossible to believe that drug companies will provide the gun to shoot themselves in the foot.
Buying medications from Canada is not importing them, it is reimporting them - from the subsidiaries of multinational companies that are seen as the source of high prices. All that Americans are doing when they purchase penicillin and other pharmaceuticals from Canada is buying from U.S producers - who ultimately will not supply Canada with the means to decimate domestic sales. There have been numerous concerns raised in Canada about whether Canadians could meet U.S needs without precariously diminishing Canadian supplies. They can't, for a simple reason: Multinational companies would obviously not welcome a change that would cannibalize their own market. Hoping to buy back medications that originated with U.S suppliers is like robbing Peter - and hoping to use the same money to pay him back.
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