An american company develops an american drug, manufactures it in america, ships it to canada, and then its legal to go buy in canada? Instead of fixing the price discrepancy in the first place.
Its just another goofy legal loophole to avoid adressing the issue.
> Its just another goofy legal loophole to avoid adressing the issue.
It's not a legal loophole. It ensures that the price of the drugs in the US will never be more than the price of the drugs in Canada (plus any additional costs of importing).
Almost nobody will actually import the drugs from Canada, but the legality of it provides sufficient market pressure on pharmaceutical companies that they wouldn't be able to charge 100x the amount in the US that they would in Canada.
There is absolutely a relationship between intellectual property law and trade law. The restriction in drug import exists to make the patent effective. Its the same as Costco vs Omega. Import rights are intrinsically intertwined with ownership and sale rights.
> There is absolutely a relationship between intellectual property law and trade law. The restriction in drug import exists to make the patent effective.
No, this is a common misconception. If FooCorp manufactures a drug in the US and exports it to the US, there is no inherent patent issue with a US entity purchasing it from the Canadian middleman.
Its just another goofy legal loophole to avoid adressing the issue.