Steve Anthony: True Canadian Pharmacy

Nine years after vowing to find out why his healthy teenage daughter died while taking a popular prescription drug, a rookie MP is launching a campaign to persuade the Harper government to establish an independent drug safety agency in Canada.
Terence Young, Conservative MP for Oakville, Ont., is making his pitch for the agency in a new book that details his battle with “Big Pharma” and the health agencies and professionals that are charged with (more…)

British Columbia has become the first province in Canada to pay for a relatively inexpensive drug that can help stop the progression and even reverse the effects of wet macular degeneration.
But not everybody is happy about it. A drug company that sells a similar treatment at a much higher cost said the decision could put the health of patients at risk – the latest chapter in a long-brewing battle over the two treatments.
The issue began to unfold (more…)

CBC.ca:
B.C.’s pharmacists are not prepared to detect or deal with prescription drug fraud, according to a new study conducted by the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford.
The study found that even if there’s something obviously wrong with a prescription slip, many pharmacists are worried about what would happen if they confronted a patient, according to co-author Dr. Irwin Cohen, the research director of the university’s centre for social (more…)

B.C. residents spend 25-per-cent less per capita on medicine than the rest of Canada — except when it comes to prescription drugs for erectile dysfunction.
We spend the most on those.
A new University of B.C. report on prescription-drug spending does not explain whether the greater use of drugs such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra is due to a higher proportion of men in B.C. with impotence.
Experts interviewed Tuesday said they thought it might (more…)

The owner of a North Vancouver health and supplement store charged with selling steroids to kids has pled guilty to one count of drug trafficking.
Joao Melo, 28, appeared in North Vancouver provincial court Thursday to enter the plea. His co-accused, Sylvie Tran, 26, was not present.
Melo and Tran were arrested last October for selling the steroid derivative Methyl-1-Testosterone or M1T at their business, SVN Canada on Lower Lonsdale. The arrests (more…)

A new research project in British Columbia aims to develop a tool to allow drug doses for children to be tailored to their individual genetic makeup in order to help prevent potentially life-threatening drug reactions.
According to Health Canada, more than half of newly approved therapeutic health products prompt serious reactions that are discovered only after the product reaches the market. Three-quarters of medications have never been tested (more…)