Controlling the high costs of drugs

Cystinosis is a rare genetic disease that causes kidney damage. About 100 people in Canada have the disease and their annual drug costs are $10,000. Soon, the costs will jump to $300,000.

Today in The Conversation Canada, Joel Lexchin, Professor Emeritus of Health Policy and Management at York University and Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, says the federal government’s proposed national pharmacare plan “could help to bring some order to the chaotic world of Canadian drug prices. Everyone in the country would be covered under a public plan and benefit from the lower drug prices that would be achieved.”

Sylvain Charlebois of Dalhousie University tells us about his university’s latest polling which shows the number of vegetarians and vegans have remained constant over the last decade, “but the number of Canadians who follow specific dietary practices is clearly on the rise over the last few years.”

Another diet related story comes from Elie Chamoun at the University of Guelph. She helps us try to answer the question: How much salt is too much salt?

And finally, we’ve assembled several stories from our global network about the life of Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s most famous scientists who died yesterday. Included in these stories is one from Martin Rees, Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge, who first met a young Hawking in 1964.

Regards,

Scott White

Editor

Today's Featured Stories

Could universal pharmacare reduce excessive drug price hikes in Canada? Eric Hoskins, former Ontario Minister of Health, will chair a federal government advisory council to implement a national pharmacare plan. Hoskins is pictured here with federal Minister of Health Ginette Petitpas Taylor. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang)

Pharmacare and the chaotic world of Canadian drug prices

Joel Lexchin, University of Toronto

The cost of a life-saving drug in Canada is rising by 3,000 per cent. A national pharmacare plan could bring order to this chaotic world of Canadian drug prices.

Younger Canadians are going meatless, but Canada still has a love affair with meat, according to a Dalhousie University study. This 2015 photo shows rib eye steak with gochujang butter and nori. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead)

Young Canadians lead the charge to a meatless Canada

Sylvain Charlebois, Dalhousie University

Canadians still love their meat, but consumers under 35 are three times more likely to consider themselves vegetarians or vegans than consumers who are 49 or older.

Most Canadians eat at least double the daily adequate intake of sodium. And, shockingly, 93 per cent of children aged four to eight exceed Health Canada’s Tolerable Upper Intake Level. (Shutterstock)

Dietary salt, the silent killer: How much is too much?

Elie Chamoun, University of Guelph

Most men, women and children in Canada exceed the tolerable upper limits of salt for their bodies. Consumers need to understand how much salt is too much -- to avoid hypertension and heart disease.

Stephen Hawking

Lwp Kommunikáció/Flickr

Stephen Hawking: Martin Rees looks back on colleague's spectacular success against all odds

Martin Rees, University of Cambridge

UK's Astronomer Royal Martin Rees shares his memories of the physicist Stephen Hawking, who has died at the age of 76.

British theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Professor Stephen Hawking in 2014. EPA/Andy Rain

Tributes pour in for Stephen Hawking, the famous theoretical physicist who died at age 76

Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology; Alice Gorman, Flinders University; Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland; Lisa Harvey-Smith, CSIRO; Matthew Bailes, Swinburne University of Technology; Steven Tingay, Curtin University

Stephen Hawking inspired people with his work on black holes and other mysteries of the universe. Many were quick to pay tribute to the theoretical physicist who died today in the UK, aged 76.

Stephen Hawking at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge in 2015. lwpkommunikacio/flickr

A timeline of Stephen Hawking's remarkable life

Michael Courts, The Conversation; Sarah Keenihan, The Conversation

Hawking's most famous book, A Brief History of Time, sold 10 million copies and was translated into 40 languages, skyrocketing to the top of the bestseller lists in the US and UK.