Firms that sell price-controlled patent drugs spent $922.9 million on research in Canada in 2021, reported the Patented Medicines Price Review Board. That’s the biggest percentage increase since 2002, though it left research spending well below its $1.325-billion peak in 2007. (The Logic)

Talking point: The federal Liberals have pledged to rebuild Canada’s pharmaceutical industry in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the 2021 research spending was still just 3.4 per cent of the patented-drug companies’ sales here, the same as in 2020—no worse, but also no better. The companies reported collective sales of $27.5 billion, which the board said was driven by higher sales of more expensive drugs. One cancer drug, Merck’s Keytruda, costs an average of more than $46,000 a year and saw sales increase by $155.2 million in 2021.