As global trade relationships fracture and geopolitical fault lines deepen, it’s tempting to think of national security in the traditional terms of tanks, trade corridors, and territorial sovereignty. But the events of the past five years have exposed another significant vulnerability: our health security.
Now, as the World Health Organization raises serious concerns about the “scale and speed” of a new Ebola outbreak in Congo and health agencies across the globe carefully monitor the limited spread of hantavirus, concerns about our preparedness, supply chains, and domestic biomanufacturing capacity are once again front and centre.
Canada's new Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) is the first formal recognition that health security, and the pharmaceutical innovation that underpins it, is essential to national security. It designates medical countermeasures—like vaccines, therapeutic drugs, biologics, diagnostics, and personal protective equipment—as a sovereign capability, commits $656.9 million for dual-use technologies, and establishes a Life Sciences Fund.
That recognition matters enormously. But you can’t build a sovereign biodefence system by treating innovative medicines as a national security asset on paper, while simultaneously underinvesting in the very ecosystem that makes them possible in the first place.
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare just how vulnerable Canada is in a crisis. When supply chains buckled and vaccine nationalism swept the globe, Canada was left scrambling. We found ourselves dependent on foreign manufacturers, negotiating from weakness, and watching other nations secure doses we couldn’t.
Meanwhile, economic disruption, deferred surgeries, and chronic disease backlogs accumulated across our already overstretched health system. That experience highlighted the importance of innovative medicines to a health system’s ability to absorb and respond to crises.
Innovative medicines are patented, new therapies developed through years of scientific research and decades-long investment. They treat cancer, autoimmune disorders, mental health disorders, and rare and infectious diseases. Beyond their role in patient care, they support four national security capabilities: surge capacity in a health crisis, workforce continuity for the military and civilian economy, economic stability, and resilience against biological threats.
Any credible defence strategy must balance strengthening our ability to discover, develop, and manufacture innovative medicines at home, while preserving the global supply chain relationships that buffer us against future crises.
But the window to do so is narrowing.
International drug pricing and launch sequencing are shifting, triggered by new policies under President Trump. This includes the introduction of most-favoured nation (MFN) pricing for prescription drugs in the U.S., which compels companies to match American prices to lower ones in countries like Canada, and a proposed 100 per cent tariff on imported patented medications and their active ingredients.
These shifts create profound uncertainty, forcing companies to reassess where they manufacture, invest, and launch new medicines first.
Canada already faces a size disadvantage, representing only two per cent of the global prescription drug market. This is compounded by our slow, complex pricing system that pushes drug prices as low as possible at the expense of timely access. The result is that Canada has the longest wait times in the G7 for innovative medicines, with only 18 per cent of medicines launched globally reaching public drug plans.
In a national security context, those are major readiness gaps.
Our allies understand this. NATO identified health system resilience as one of seven baseline requirements for national security across the alliance as far back as 2016. Similarly, the European Union is implementing a more comprehensive approach that treats health resilience and security as strategic priorities, with final changes to its Critical Medicines Act expected later in 2026.
Innovative pharmaceutical companies are a natural fit for the DIS’s Build-Partner-Buy framework, which prioritizes building domestically where possible, partnering with trusted allies where needed, and buying only where necessary. Their production, research and development, and supply chains span multiple allied economies, but they’re deeply invested and embedded in Canada's health innovation ecosystem. That’s exactly the kind of diversified structure that can strengthen Canada’s resilience.
Getting this right has far-reaching benefits. A new Deloitte report shows that every $1 invested in innovative medicines generates almost $3 in economic value in the form of jobs, labour income, and government revenue.
The DIS offers a promising foundation. But a foundation isn’t a house. It’s time to think bolder and build.
Dr. Bettina Hamelin is the President & CEO of Innovative Medicines Canada, the national association representing Canada’s innovative pharmaceutical industry.
The views expressed are those of the author(s). National Newswatch Inc. publishes a range of perspectives and does not necessarily endorse the opinions presented.