Health committee  There's a process of negotiation. As the chair--and it's the same for the other board members--we are not party to any of the negotiations because we may at some time have to sit on an adjudicative panel, but our staff does do a lot of negotiation. The staff will point out that the price is excessive; the company will respond that they didn't count this or that, and then there's a lot of middle road.

Health committee  Madam, that is a very obvious good question. Changing a statute in Parliament would require I don't know how much pulling of teeth. When we sit on these panels, we feel the wording of the Patent Act is too vague; it's not sufficiently prescriptive. However, changing the Patent Act would be very difficult, and the elements in there are what we're now discussing in these guidelines we have--the interpretation.

Health committee  I have to go to my day job, which is at the Civic Hospital.

Health committee  We're okay for an hour. I have to be there at 5:30 or 6 o'clock.

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Merrifield. Bonjour. Good afternoon. I'm pleased to have my first opportunity to appear before you as the chairperson of the PMPRB. I was appointed as chair last summer, but I've been a member of the board for almost two years now. Today we're going to discuss main estimates and undoubtedly a number of other issues of interest to committee members relating to the pharmaceutical pricing and pharmaceutical environment in Canada.