Yes, absolutely. The idea of having a patent as a mechanism for incentivizing research and development typically comes from markets where the price that a consumer is willing to pay is based on the idea that the consumer can always walk away from a transaction on a voluntary basis and not be harmed unduly by doing so. Unfortunately, in the context of necessary medicines, particularly for serious diseases, patients can't walk away. As a consequence, patients and their families would pay virtually anything for effective life-saving treatments. As a consequence, patients and their families and their organizations would try to convince governments to pay anything for effective life-saving treatments. This gives patent holders in the pharmaceutical market very unique market power, which the patent system really wasn't designed to provide. That's why safeguards like PMPRB regulations are a useful tool to make sure that there's incentive for innovation, but not an opportunity to abuse the market power of the patent.
