As well, the order states that Director of Public Prosecutions Kathleen
Roussel is exempted from this waiving of privilege and any information
or conversations between Wilson-Raybould and Roussel cannot be
disclosed, “in order to uphold the integrity of any criminal or civil
proceedings,” the prime minister’s office states in the Order in
Council.

That warning, in its dry bureaucratic language, was contained in a new report from Canada’s drug price monitoring agency, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB). The report explores the “market entry dynamics” of new drugs approved in 2016 and 2017 in Canada, the U.S. and the European Union.

“The long-term trends are alarming,” said Douglas Clark, the PMPRB’s executive director. “This is the nature of the pharmaceutical marketplace we now find ourselves in. It’s dominated by these very high-cost drugs.”