Risk regulation as it is currently implemented has many pitfalls. In some cases, regulations to address one risk can introduce other risks. In many cases, expenditure to reduce a risk could save many more years of life if spent reducing another risk. These issues are not currently considered by many of the interest groups calling for more risk regulation, the public supporting those calls, or the governments who respond by introducing more regulation. Instead, risk activists and regulators focus on the potential benefits of risk regulation while ignoring the costs.

This study compares the prices of prescription drugs in Canada and the United States. The measure used is the replacement cost, at Canadian prices, of drugs consumed by the average American pharmacy or consumer. The sample was selected from the drugs consumed in the largest quantities in the United States. This ensures that the study captured non-patented as well as patented drugs.