The Role of Provincial and Federal Governments in Pharmaceutical Policy
The provincial and federal governments in Canada are responsible for determining pharmaceutical policy. Both the national and local governments are responsible for ensuring that pharmaceutical regulations are implemented efficiently. The federal government's task is to maintain overall market competition, acceptance of drug prescription labeling, and respect for intellectual property rights (Ramsey et al., 2005).
Challenges in Pharmaceutical Practices
All healthcare service providers, including pharmaceuticals, must be funded by the provincial government. Pharmaceutical practices, however, continue to pose difficulties. Pharmaceutical prices, which have consistently gone up, are one of the issues impacting pharmaceutical research and development. When carrying out research and development, pharmaceutical companies invest time and money to come up with viable solutions to the current healthcare problems. However, the struggle is not yet over.
Expensive Clinical Trials
Methods involving the use of clinical trials during the research process have proven to be expensive. Therefore, the pharmaceutical policy is still facing challenges when it comes to the determination and implementation of drug pricing. Furthermore, the responsibility of pharmaceutical policy is to ensure that the services provided by healthcare systems are of high quality. However, quality might not be the case currently because the prices of drugs have tended to go high.
The Importance of Clinical Trials
As mentioned before, one of the causes is the failure of many clinical trials. The solution to this particular problem requires serious attention. Clinical trials are the foundations of research and development. It is from clinical trials that development of new drugs can be established. The findings of clinical trials can also help solve the problem that comes with the shortage of drugs supply and healthcare services as well.
Globalization of Clinical Trials
Additionally, the wider public can be educated about the advantages of participating in the clinical trials. They should understand that most of the clinical trials are safeguarded, and proper measures have been taken for solving the challenge that comes with pharmaceutical costs. Globalization of clinical trials is another step in solving the problem that comes with pharmaceutical costs. People across the world need to know how the solutions to their problems are achieved. In that case, globalization of clinical trials implies that both developed and developing countries are involved in the quest for searching solutions to the shortage supply of drugs and quality healthcare services. By involving people from different ethnic groups and races in the research and development programs, clinical trials will soon become a viable method for solving the current problem.
Importance of Public Education and Funding
Even though the pharmaceutical policy is more about funding of research, patent law, reimbursement, eligibility, pricing, licensing, and pharmacy services, all of these will be in vain without educating the wider public about the importance of participating in the clinical trials. Funding for the research and development of drugs is not a problem. However, the problem is the high cost that comes with challenges of convincing patients to be participants during clinical trials. Furthermore, the process involved is a two-way traffic. Apart from the funds that are donated by the major sponsors, the major participants are the researchers and patients.
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