May The Task Force Be With You
October 19, 2026
A look at the environment that led to 39 recommendations, culminating in one moment of opportunity for Canada
It’s no secret that equity and timely access pose significant challenges in Canada – we’ve reported on it before1,2 and likely will again. But against the backdrop of those longstanding systemic issues, Canada now faces new economic pressures, particularly from the United States. It’s a moment when our country has an opportunity to stand up and advocate for its own sovereignty and resilience across many different strands of the economy, including healthcare. And now, a Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Sector Task Force has released a report that could help us meet that moment.
In March of 2026, Health Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada convened the Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Sector Task Force to “identify made-in-Canada solutions” in the life sciences sector. They invited select members from national industry associations, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and regulatory bodies, with the goal of gaining “advice and recommendations for improving access to medicines while continuing to support a strong and competitive pharmaceutical and life sciences industry in Canada.”3
Asked in an interview about the rationale behind the Task Force, federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel said, “As a country, we need to address our own sovereignty. How we can provide equitable access to treatment for Canadians, medicines, vaccines, everything? This is a conversation as a country that we should have done, but with the geopolitical context, we cannot wait.”4
It’s a conversation that many in Canada’s pharmaceutical industry also welcome. “The Task Force is a real moment of opportunity,” says Helen Trifonopoulos, Head of Market Access, Public Affairs, and Patient Programs at Bristol Myers Squibb Canada. “As a committed partner in Canada’s life sciences sector, what we’re looking for now is the chance to work alongside government and build something that works for patients, for the economy, and for Canada’s long-term competitiveness.”5
The Task Force has now released its report – a comprehensive analysis of the issues surrounding medication access in Canada, culminating in a list of 39 recommendations for how the federal government and its agencies can “take deliberate, bold and swift action to make the changes needed to create a world leading pharmaceutical and life sciences industry for a healthier and wealthier Canada.”3 We’ll dive deeper into these later in this issue, with help from some subject-matter experts. For now, let’s take a closer look at how we got here.
Living in interesting times
As anyone who’s taken a recent look at the news knows, we’re living on a bit of an economic roller-coaster right now. Every day seems to bring new developments about tariffs, trade wars, and new partnership opportunities, and what might be coming next is anyone’s guess. While those uncertainties reverberate throughout the economy, they raise particular issues for the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
One of the biggest impacts for the pharmaceutical industry came with the United States’ establishment of a “Most Favoured Nation” (MFN) policy on medication pricing in May of 2025. In brief, US drug prices are higher compared to other similar markets, which is thought to help recoup R&D investments, a situation that the current US administration has labelled as “global freeloading.” The goal of MFN is to put pressure on drug companies to raise prices in other countries, allowing them to drop their US prices.6 The Task Force report doesn’t call out MFN by name, but it does recognize that trade dynamics are shifting – and could shift further, without much warning.
We’re already starting to see the impact of MFN on drug availability in Canada. A recent survey of 31 pharmaceutical and life sciences companies in Canada found that 16 Canadian launches of new medicines have been cancelled, and a further 32 delayed, due to the policy.7 In some cases, this appears to reflect a manufacturer’s loss of confidence in obtaining public reimbursement.
For example, Health Canada recently approved Vanrafia (atrasentan) for the treatment of IgA nephropathy (IgAN), a progressive disease that can lead to kidney failure. Drugmaker Novartis announced its approval with an press release,8 but then backed away from moving any further through the reimbursement process.9 While the company did not specifically mention MFN as a reason behind their decision, in a statement they said, “While Novartis remains committed to expanding access to our medicines for patients in Canada, we have determined that under the current Canadian access environment, the likelihood of successfully securing reimbursement for Vanrafia is limited. As such, Novartis Canada has made the decision not to seek reimbursement…at this time.”9
For patient advocates like Eva Villalba, Executive Director of the Québec Cancer Coalition, it’s not enough for governments to sit back and wait to see how the effects of MFN play out. “When I've spoken to provincial and federal government representatives about MFN and patient access in Canada, they’ve almost always said, ‘We'll deal with it when and if it actually happens.’ The bad news is that it’s already happening,” she says. “If other countries are reducing bureaucratic delays and offering other incentives, what will Canada do? Cancer and rare diseases don't wait, so we shouldn't either. It's time to take a bold and proactive approach to ensuring Canadians get timely access to life-saving therapies.”10
“Other countries are reducing bureaucratic delays and offering incentives. It’s time for Canada to take a bold and proactive approach to ensuring Canadians get timely access to life-saving therapies.”
Eva Villalba
Executive Director, Québec Cancer Coalition
Delays and disparities
While some of the challenges addressed in the Report meet our health system’s particular moment, many of the issues reflect systemic problems that Canada has been wrestling with for some time.
A case in point: the time it takes for a novel medication to make it through the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA) negotiation process. While average timelines have improved in recent years, progress remains uneven. According to Roman Zilbershtein, co-founder of at Rapid Access AI, a company that tracks drug reimbursement timelines, “pCPA engagement times have fallen substantially – from an average of 118 days in 2024, to about 79 days in 2026, but there’s still a fair amount of variability in how quickly files get picked up.” He points out that even though many reviews are meeting their timeline targets, about one-quarter of files remain in the 'in consideration' phase for over 6 months, with some negotiations stretching out as far as 220 days or beyond.
For patients waiting to learn whether a new therapy will become available to them, those delays do more than cause frustration: they put lives at risk. Patient advocate David Fowler lives with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), a rare, progressive heart disease. Amvuttra (vutrisiran), a new medication with promising clinical data in ATTR-CM, is available in the US, UK, and parts of the EU, but in Canada it has only just recently moved into the “Negotiating” phase with pCPA, after the file sat for more than six months in the “Under consideration for negotiation” stage.
The delays and lack of available information have left Mr. Fowler, who is eagerly tracking the status of the file, understandably frustrated. “As a patient living with a progressive, treatable, but ultimately incurable disease, time is everything,” he says. Unfortunately, this experience reflects a broader pattern. “Compared with many peer countries, Canadians continue to wait among the longest for access to new medicines. As a patient, it is difficult to reconcile that reality with repeated commitments to modernize and accelerate the reimbursement process. The discussion feels like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic when time is running out.” He adds that "while current medications only slow the progression of the disease, there are drugs in the clinical trial stage that show promise of a cure. Potentially these may be available in about 3 years, but if I have to wait 3 or 4 more years for the Canadian system to approve and fund, I will literally die waiting."
Even when a new medication successfully exits a pCPA negotiation, access can end up being a “postal code lottery” since each province and territory makes its own decisions and sets its own criteria for public funding. “I am beyond frustrated with a system that seems determined to stay stuck,” says patient advocate Beth Vanstone.11 She cites the example of the new cystic fibrosis medication Alyftrek (vanzacaftor/tezacaftor/deutivacaftor), which has strong clinical data showing how it can change the course of disease and reduce the risk of hospital stays and lung transplants. “Patients have returned to work and are living lives they never dreamed of when diagnosed,” she says. “This drug is providing miracles, and yet it took nearly a year to be negotiated while patients waited.”
While HTA and pricing negotiations have now concluded, the postal code lottery is now in play: as of this writing, only five provinces (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Québec, and Nova Scotia) have announced public funding. “I feel the story of Alyftrek demonstrates that our system has not improved, and the case of Vanrafia in IgAN shows that it may in fact be getting tougher,” Vanstone says. “And that’s bad news for patients who do not have time for our system to get it right.”11
The report and the reactions
After several months of research, meetings, and discussions, the “Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Sector Task Force: Report to the ministers of health and industry” was released in late July, 2026.3 The hefty report offers a comprehensive analysis of the situation and issues, along with its 39 recommendations about how to address some of the biggest challenges (but not all of the biggest ones – some federal coverage policy decisions, such as pharmacare and drugs for rare diseases, lie beyond its scope.)
The report makes it clear that the system needs not just a renovation, but an overhaul. Many of the recommendations go beyond incremental change and involve re-thinking the way things have been done until now. Or, in the words of Task Force Co-Chairs Michelle Boudreau and Martin LeBlanc, “Decisive action, supported by sustained collaboration, will be required to strengthen outcomes for people in Canada and position Canada for greater resilience and growth in the global life sciences landscape.”
So how does that happen? Many of the recommendations revolve around using data, analytics, and emerging technologies to modernize decision-making from the ground up. As part of that, the report emphasizes the importance of working to build a “sovereign, connected, and accessible health and life sciences data ecosystem” that would help us understand how innovations translate into value and savings for patients and the healthcare system. This also could help address another long-standing issue: not only does Canada provide slower access to innovative medicines than other G7 countries, but the pricing policy prioritizes a low cost to health systems, which can discourage investment in Canada by pharmaceutical companies. If new data can be collected to show the role of innovation in generating healthcare cost savings and delivering system-wide value, Canada could become a more attractive place for pharmaceutical companies to develop and market innovative medicines.
Once a company does decide to invest in Canada and launch a medicine, there is an opportunity to rethink our old processes and habits. “As Canada considers the Task Force recommendations, it's important that implementation reflects the full journey of a medicine through the healthcare system,” says Dimitris Polygenis, President of McKesson Canada. “Bringing together expertise from across the sector, including manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and care providers, will help turn the recommendations into meaningful improvements for patients.”12 And that includes every last step necessary to get medications into the hands of patients. According to Vital, the alliance representing Canada’s pharmaceutical supply chain, “pharmaceutical sovereignty does not end when a medicine leaves the production line, it ends when that medicine reaches a patient. Canada’s pharmaceutical strategy needs the entire supply chain.”13
But as ever, all of these system improvements must converge on one goal: improving life for Canadian patients. And again, patient advocate Eva Villalba has some important insights. “Patient advocacy groups have been warning that if Canada does nothing, it will set us back decades, as multinationals look to other more competitive and proactive jurisdictions to launch before us,” she says. She feels that Canada needs to come up with a strategy that respects the government’s ability to pay for medications while still fostering a clinical research environment that can attract R&D investment and product launches. And that means taking a broad, long-term perspective: “We can start by prioritizing the value of innovations and not just the one-time cost.”14
The report makes it clear that the system needs not just a renovation, but an overhaul. Many of the recommendations go beyond incremental change and involve re-thinking the way things have been done until now.
References
1. The 20Sense Report, Issue 32. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61d708f9587415184afa9452/t/6806d8d850a9856f0d188d58/1745279197689/Issue32.pdf
2. The 20Sense Report, Issue 36. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61d708f9587415184afa9452/t/69d50bb6bb07e87ebe54ad0f/1775569846038/20Sense_Report36_f.pdf
3. Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Sector Task Force: Report to the ministers of health and industry. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-health-products/drug-products/announcements/pharmaceutical-life-sciences-sector-task-force/report-ministers-health-industry.html
4. Chris Hannay, The Globe and Mail. Ottawa, drug companies launch task force to prepare for USMCA talks. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/economy/article-ottawa-drug-companies-launch-task-force-to-prepare-for-usmca-talks/
5. Helen Trifonopoulos, iPolitics. At a Watershed Moment, Canada has the Potential to Create a Thriving Life Science Ecosystem. https://www.ipolitics.ca/2026/04/29/at-a-watershed-moment-canada-has-the-potential-to-create-a-thriving-life-science-ecosystem/
6. Gi Society. Most Favoured Nation’s Impact on Patients in Canada. https://badgut.org/mfn/
7. Cristina Howorun, CityNews. EXCLUSIVE: U.S. policy compelling some drug companies to stall medicine rollouts in Canada. https://toronto.citynews.ca/2026/08/17/exclusive-us-policy-compelling-some-drug-companies-to-stall-medicine-rollouts-in-canada/
8. Novartis Canada press release. Novartis receives Health Canada approval for VANRAFIAᵀᴹ (atrasentan tablet) for proteinuria reduction in adults with primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN). https://www.novartis.com/ca-en/news/media-releases/novartis-receives-health-canada-approval-vanrafia-atrasentan-tablet-proteinuria-reduction-adults-primary-immunoglobulin-nephropathy-igan
9. Cristina Howorun, CityNews. EXCLUSIVE: Drug companies choosing not to sell life-saving and life-extending medicines in Canada. http://toronto.citynews.ca/2026/08/14/exclusive-drug-companies-choosing-not-to-sell-life-saving-and-life-extending-medicines-in-canada/
10. Eva Villalba, LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/evavillalba1_mfn-share-7495230330975576066-Mf_5
11. Beth Vanstone, LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/beth-vanstone-4475a5167_healthpolicy-losinghope-raredisease-share-7494377098300649472-csVa
12. Dimitris Polygenis, LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dimitris-polygenis-4bb42b34_the-conversation-around-pharmaceutical-sovereignty-share-7491471819552706560-SGEa
13. Angelique Berg, The Hill Times. Canada’s pharmaceutical strategy needs the entire supply chain. https://cms.vital.ca/files/images/Articles/08052026-The-Hill-Times.pdf
14. Eva Villalba, LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/graham-statt-20a08919b_on-friday-the-pharmaceutical-and-life-sciences-share-7488123080201043968-J-E_