Michael Law

Mike

Faculty, Centre for Health Services and Policy Research
Canada Research Chair in Access to Medicines
Professor, UBC School of Population and Public Health

michael.law@ubc.ca
(604) 822-3514

Profile

Dr. Michael Law holds the Canada Research Chair in Access to Medicines, and is a professor 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 $2.5 million in research funding, including 4 operating grants from CIHR as principal investigator. Currently, his program of research includes studies in several countries, including Canada, Rwanda, Uganda, Namibia, and Colombia.

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 Canada Research Chair (2015), 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 CIHR 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.

In 2015, he taught one of UBC’s first edX.org Professional Education courses on Interrupted Time Series Analysis.

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.

Education

PhD, Health Policy, Harvard University, 2008
MSc, Health Population and Society, London School of Economics, 2002
BA&Sc, Arts & Sciences Program, McMaster University, 2001

Research Interests

  • Pharmaceutical policy
  • Observational studies
  • Medication adherence and health outcomes
  • Routine data in lower-income countries

Current Projects

  • Cost-related nonadherence to prescription drugs: A multi-method study
  • Impact of physician detailing and sampling for generic atorvastatin

Affiliations and Awards

  • Career Investigator Scholar Award, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, 2012-2020
  • New Investigator Award, CIHR, 2010-2015

Current Graduate Students

  • Joshua Bird, PhD Student, School of Population and Public Health (with Mint Ti)
  • Katherine Huerne, PhD Student, School of Population and Public Health (with Gillian Hanley)
  • Alexandra Lukey, PhD Student, School of Population and Public Health
  • Jean Makuza, PhD Student, School of Population and Public Health
  • Corneille Ntihabose, PhD Student, School of Population and Public Health
  • Evelyne Piret, PhD Student, School of Population and Public Health (with M-J Milloy)
  • Juliana Rincon Lopez, PhD Student, School of Population and Public Health (with Colin Dormuth)
  • Maryann Rogers, MSc Student, School of Population and Public Health
  • Hinda Ruton, PhD Student, School of Population and Public Health
  • Andrea Stucchi, PhD Student, School of Population and Public Health (with Laura Schummers)

Courses Currently Taught

Recent Publications

Schummers L, Law MR, McGrail K, Darling EK, Zusman EZ, Dunn S, Kaczorowski J, Gayowsky A, Gozdyra P, Norman WV. Changes in local access to mifepristone dispensed by community pharmacies for medication abortion in Ontario: a population-based repeated cross-sectional study. CMAJ. 2025 Apr 6;197(13):E345-E354. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.241505. Read more

Li SS, McGrail K, Rosychuk RJ, Law MR, Hohl CM; Canadian COVID-19 Emergency Department Rapid Response Network (CCEDRRN) investigators for the Network of Canadian Emergency Researchers. Outcomes for people experiencing homelessness with COVID-19 presenting to emergency departments in Canada, compared with housed patients. CMAJ. 2025 Mar 10;197(9):E236-E243. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.241282. Read more

Sharma K, Cheng L, Dormuth CR, McGrail KM, De Vera MA, Clement F, McCracken RK, Mamdani M, Law MR. The impact of eliminating out-of-pocket payments for medicines on low-income households: a controlled interrupted time series analysis using linked administrative data from British Columbia. Health Policy. 2025 Feb 17;155:105270. doi: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2025.105270. Online ahead of print. Read more

Phagau NN, Kaur P, Nitschke A, Law MR, Guhn M, Oberlander TF, Hanley GE. Prenatal depression and child developmental vulnerability. Pediatr Res. 2025 Jan 24. doi: 10.1038/s41390-025-03846-z. Online ahead of print. Read more

Lukey A, Sowamber R, Huntsman D, Pearce CL, Howard AF, Meza R, Law MR, Phung MT, Hanley GE. Evaluating ovarian cancer risk-reducing salpingectomy acceptance: a survey. Cancer Res Commun. 2025 Jan 9. doi: 10.1158/2767-9764.CRC-24-0566. Online ahead of print. Read more

Rebić N, Cheng L, Law MR, Cragg JJ, Brotto LA, De Vera MA. Predictors of cost-related medication nonadherence in Canada: a repeated cross-sectional analysis of the Canadian Community Health Survey. CMAJ. 2024 Nov 24;196(40):E1331-E1340. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.241024. Read more

Xie EC, Ali S, Law M, Allin S, Proaño D, Sander B. Equity of financial protection for health in high-income countries: scoping review protocol. BMJ Open. 2024 Nov 21;14(11):e081029. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-081029. Read more

Kyomba GK, Law MR, Grépin KA, Mayaka SM, Mambu TN, Mbunga BK, Hategeka C, Mapatano MA, Konde JN, Ngo-Bebe D, Babakazo PD, Mafuta EM, Kiyombo GM. Barriers and facilitators to healthcare facility utilization by non-Ebola patients during the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Glob Health Res Policy. 2024 Nov 19;9(1):47. doi: 10.1186/s41256-024-00387-6. Read more

Hardiman S, Fradet G, Kuramoto L, Law M, Robinson S, Sobolev B. The effect of coronary revascularization treatment timing on mortality in patients with stable ischemic heart disease in British Columbia. PLoS One. 2024 Oct 24;19(10):e0303222. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0303222. eCollection 2024. Read more

Wickham ME, McGrail KM, Law MR, Cragg A, Hohl CM. Re-Exposure to Culprit Medication Following Adverse Drug Event Diagnosis in Canadian Emergency Department Patients: A Cohort Study. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2024 Sep;33(9):e70012. doi: 10.1002/pds.70012. Read more

Sharma K, Brophy S, Law M, Sriram V. Health worker protests and the COVID-19 pandemic: an interrupted time-series analysis. Bull World Health Organ. 2024 Sep 1;102(9):650-656. doi: 10.2471/BLT.23.290330. Epub 2024 Jul 4. Read more

Johnson KM, Cheng L, Yin Y, Carter R, Chow S, Brigham E, Law MR. The Impact of Eliminating Out-of-Pocket Payments on Asthma Medication Use. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2024 Aug 6. doi: 10.1513/AnnalsATS.202402-130OC. Online ahead of print. Read more

Gao C, Cho LL, Dhillon A, Kim S, McGrail K, Law MR, Sunderji N, Barbic S. Understanding the factors related to how East and Southeast Asian immigrant youth and families access mental health and substance use services: A scoping review. PLoS One. 2024 Jul 15;19(7):e0304907. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304907. eCollection 2024. Read more

Hardiman S, Fradet G, Kuramoto L, Law M, Robinson S, Sobolev B. The effect of treatment timing on repeat revascularization in patients with stable ischemic heart disease. JTCVS Open. 2024 Apr 22;19:164-174. doi: 10.1016/j.xjon.2024.04.009. eCollection 2024 Jun. Read more

Wickham ME, McGrail KM, Law MR, Cragg A, Hohl CM. Validating use of diagnostic codes in Canadian administrative data for identification of adverse drug events. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2024 Apr 11. doi: 10.1111/bcp.16067. Online ahead of print. Read more

Older publications