In this week's Fall Economic Statement, the Government of Canada committed to ensuring that our country is well-positioned to respond to future health emergencies and is examining ways to promote growth in Canada's biomanufacturing sector.News that Canadians will get COVID-19 vaccines later than people in other countries because of a lack of domestic manufacturing has served a wake-up call about the importance of strengthening our domestic pharmaceutical capacity.As the Prime Minister stated last week, the countries that have domestic pharmaceutical facilities are “obviously going to prioritize helping their citizens first.”While generic pharmaceutical manufacturers do not produce vaccines in Canada, they do make medicines to treat COVID-19 patients, as well as prescription drugs dispensed in community pharmacies.Compared with many countries that rely solely on importing their prescription medicines, Canada is fortunate to have extensive domestic generic pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity and capabilities. With generic medicines dispensed to fill 73 percent of all prescriptions in Canada the security of the nation's supply rests largely with the generic pharmaceutical industry.The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges and uncertainty for global supply chains in all industries, with border closures and export restrictions imposed by some countries, and significant reductions in global transportation capacity.The vulnerability of the pharmaceutical supply chain became more evident in April 2020, when Canadian jurisdictions dramatically increased their demand for critical hospital products used in Intensive Care Units to treat patients with COVID-19.With the difficult lessons of COVID-19 as a guide, the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association (CGPA) published its Blueprint for a Sustainable Supply of Prescription Medicines for Canadians in June that identifies measures to enhance Canada's existing pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity and domestic capabilities, and create a more resilient pharmaceutical supply chain.Unlike other industrial sectors, such as aerospace, agriculture and energy, Canada's generic pharmaceutical industry has not traditionally had access to significant government support or intervention to enhance its essential role in Canada's health-care system and economy.In fact, government objectives such as achieving the lowest possible prices over the past decade have served to weaken Canada's domestic pharmaceutical sector and resulted in job losses, increased reliance on imports, and a more vulnerable pharmaceutical supply chain. Not surprisingly, Canada is now increasingly reliant on imports from jurisdictions that are more economically competitive for global manufacturing investment, such as China and India.According to the federal government's Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB), from 2007 to 2018, prices of generic medicines in Canada declined by an average of 59 percent. While these massive cuts have saved billions of dollars, they have also required generic pharmaceutical manufacturers in Canada to carefully manage their operations in order to remain financially viable and competitive. Just-in-time production and limited inventories are now part of the reality of cost-containment.Back in August, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced nearly $50M in funding for the Brockville, Ontario 3M plant to produce N95 masks. This announcement was heralded as an important measure to help protect the health and safety of Canadians and make us less reliant on imports. Rightly so.There was no debate over whether the N95 masks produced in Brockville were going to be sold at the lowest prices in the world. Why do we apply that test to Canadians' supply of prescription medicines?Canadian patients have access to more than two thousand prescription medicines approved by Health Canada. It is unrealistic to believe that all of these products, or the ingredients required to produce them, could be manufactured or sourced in Canada in a sustainable way. The pharmaceutical industry and supply chain are fully globalized. Regardless of where manufacturing occurs, ingredients and inputs are sourced internationally.It is, however, possible to strengthen Canada's existing pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, promote a well-functioning global supply chain, and adopt a coordinated approach to better equip Canada for future health emergencies, such as identifying essential medicines to domestically produce and stockpile for Canadian needs. In addition, there must be an emphasis on pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity as part of a larger federal manufacturing strategy.Governments and industry need to apply the lessons we are learning from the pandemic and change the way we think about the importance of prescription medicines so that the first priority is maintaining a stable and resilient supply for Canadian patients.Jim Keon is President of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association