Trump wants to ‘equalize’ and lower drug prices. Could Canada be impacted?

The federal government and policy experts say potential impacts from Trump's order, including supply shortages and higher prices, won't hit Canada anytime soon, if at all.

U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a new effort to lower prescription drug prices for Americans that targets foreign nations — both for the lower prices they pay and the potential to import cheaper drugs from those countries.

Yet the federal government and policy experts say any potential impacts from the executive order signed this week — including supply shortages and higher prices — aren’t likely to hit Canada.

“I don’t think this is actually likely to be a direct threat against Canada,” said Michael Law, a professor at the University of British Columbia and the Canada Research Chair in access to medicines.

Trump’s order calls on the health department, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to broker new price tags for drugs over the next month.

If deals are not reached with the drugmakers, Kennedy will be tasked with developing a new rule that ties the price the U.S. pays for medications to lower prices paid by other countries.

“We’re going to equalize,” Trump said at a Monday press conference. “The rest of the world is going to have to pay a little bit more, and America is going to pay a lot less.”

In Canada, drug prices are overseen by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, which told Global News it protects Canadian consumers by reviewing prices and ensuring they’re not “excessive.”

“If the price of a patented medicine is found to be excessive by a Hearing Panel, the Board has the power to order a reduction in the price in the price to a non-excessive level and to enforce that order,” a spokesperson said in an email. “The Board is also able to order a rights holder to offset any excess revenues.”