The Canadian drug market is far from “free”. The “PMPRB” sets prices on drugs so Canadians get subsidized on drug cost by Americans. Reimportation solves nothing...they cost what they cost...reimportation just shifts the cost around.
https://www.canada.ca/en/patented-medicine-prices-review.html
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.20.3.92
And before anyone starts with “drug company price gouging!”....their net margins are about 10%...far less than railroads, banks, computer companies, software companies, etc., etc..
http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/margin.html
Insulin was developed in Canada in 1922. It is still almost exactly the same product as it was originally.A vial of insulin costs pennies to produce and sells for $30.00 in Canada. That same vial is $300.00 if it is made in the US.
Americans are dying because they can’t afford insulin.That’s criminal.
Patents aren’t part of a “free market” either. The entire patent system needs to be reformed for pharma or have a maximum markup % during the patents life. Drug cost increases have averaged more than double the rate of inflation since 1960. A free market wouldn’t have that happen.
And the 10% margins are like 80% in the US and 2% everywhere else. The US is subsidizing the world.