Voyageur 68
Americans Are Lining Up for Canadian Passports, and India Launches $14 Generic Ozempic While Canada's Copies Sit in Limbo.
News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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Americans Are Lining Up for Canadian Passports
Bill C-3 came into effect last December, and the result has been a lineup that just won't quit. The law did away with the old first-generation limit on citizenship by descent - that was the rule that blocked Canadians born abroad from passing citizenship to their own children. Now, if your grandparent (or great-grandparent) was born in Canada, you can apply for proof of citizenship. The door is wide open.
Immigration consultant Cassandra Fultz says Americans are flooding in with applications. Descendants of Quebecers who emigrated between the 1830s and 1940s. Acadians whose families were deported from the Maritimes in the 1760s. West Coasters in Oregon, Washington, and California with a Canadian grandparent they barely knew. "Citizenship isn't automatic," Fultz said, but the demand has "exploded."
The catch is that there’s a "substantial connection to Canada" test - applicants need to show actual ties to the Great White North, not only a family tree. The IRCC set new processing targets to handle the wave, but nobody's going out on a limb to say how long the wait will be. For the millions of Americans who suddenly qualify, a Canadian passport might be the most practical dual-citizenship play on the continent right now.
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India Launches $14 Generic Ozempic, Canada's Copies Sit in Limbo
India got generic Ozempic on shelves this week. Canada, where the patent expired two months earlier, still has zero approved generics.
Novo Nordisk's semaglutide patent expired in India on March 22, and by the weekend Sun Pharmaceutical had "Noveltreat" on the market for as little as 900 rupees ($14 CAD) a month. Dr. Reddy's followed with "Obeda" at about what works out to be $62 CAD - still roughly half the Indian price for brand-name Ozempic. In Canada, the patent expired on January 5, but Health Canada hasn't approved a single generic application. Seven companies have filed, including Dr. Reddy's (which applied in February 2024) and Sun Pharma's Canadian subsidiary Taro. None have heard back.
Brand-name Ozempic currently costs $223 CAD for a four-week supply in Canada, a price that helped Novo Nordisk pull in $2.9 billion from Canadian sales last year - three times the next best-selling drug. Once generics eventually hit the market, the price is expected to drop to about 35% of list. Canadian expats in Asia might already be filling prescriptions their friends back home can only dream about.
Read more: The Globe and Mail / CNBC