MEDICURE
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us. It is a great community and I am committed to continue to serve it,” Friesen says. “Manitoba is a good place for business, with a great workforce that is productive, well-educated and committed. I believe we can do any- thing and everything from here in Winnipeg.” He adds that the Manitoba biotech and pharma sector is well-served by strong historical and present science education and research. In 2022, the Medicure story has come full circle, since they are once again entering into Phase 3 clinical trials with the same product they initially launched — MC-1, this time for a rare pediatric disease that causes seizures in children and can be fatal if untreated. ■ “Manitoba is a good place for business, with a great workforce that is productive, well-educated and committed. I believe we can do anything and everything from here in Winnipeg.” – Dr. Albert Friesen, Medicure CEO
This led Medicure to expand its portfolio into the primary care mar- ket in 2017 when they began marketing Zypitamag (pitavastatin), a drug used to lower cholesterol. Motivated by the desire to get more affordable brand-name alter- natives into the hands of those who need it most, Medicure decided to pursue a direct-sales opportunity. They made a bid to purchase Marley Drug, an independent online pharmacy licensed to dispense medication across the U.S. In late 2020 Medicure began selling their products online and became the first drug manufacturer to use an e-commerce model. “This allowed us to offer a statin, Zypitamag, directly to patients with- out the need for any insurance or pharmacy benefit manager middle- men,” Friesen says. “This strategy also made us the first manufacturer to sell its medications directly to patients, cutting out nearly all of the middlemen. This keeps our margins high and the cost to patients low. We feel this model will be the future of primary care products.” Though Medicure focuses on the U.S. market to sell their products, due to drug price control and limitations on specialty pharma prod- ucts in Canada, it is important to the CEO that the company remains a Manitoba-based business. “My family is based here and this is the community that has nurtured
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