Michael Law

Background

About Michael Law

Dr. Michael Law is the Canada Research Chair in Access to Medicines in the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, School of Population and Public Health, at the University of British Columbia. Michael’s research program focuses on pharmaceutical policy. His work focuses on access to and the use of prescription drugs, including the affordability of prescription drugs, private drug insurance, generic drug pricing, and the impact of pharmacist prescribing. His research program has attracted more than $5 million in research funding, including 6 operating grants from CIHR as principal investigator. He has been published in leading medical journals, including BMJ, Archives of Internal Medicine, and CMAJ. This work has been featured in news media such as New Scientist, Forbes, the Globe & Mail, and USA Today. He has also authored commentaries that have appeared in the Toronto Star and Vancouver Sun. His research has had a major impact on generic drug pricing in Canada, leading to policy changes that have saved governments the country more than $100 million every year. Since his appointment at UBC he has received several notable awards, including a Distinguished Achievement Award from the UBC Faculty of Medicine (2012), the Labelle Lectureship at McMaster University, the 2011 Paper of the Year Award from the Canadian Institute for Health Services and Policy Research, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Award, and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award. Michael has also acted as an expert witness in cases and arbitration hearings regarding private insurance in Canada. This includes being retained as an expert by the Attorney General of Canada in the Cambie Trial. He has also provided expert witness testimony in several arbitration hearings on benefits issues, particularly in the area of prescription drug coverage. Prior to joining UBC, he completed a PhD in Health Policy at Harvard University and a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, where he trained in research methods and statistics. He has also completed an MSc from the London School of Economics, and worked as a research associate at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.