Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for allowing me the opportunity to speak on behalf of the consumer health products industry on Bill C-6. My name is David Skinner, and I'm president of Consumer Health Products Canada, formerly known as NDMAC. Consumer Health

Health committee  That's why in our testimony we're suggesting it's not inappropriate to release the information, especially about intellectual property, as that confers certain property rights to the owner of the property. You should at least be able to tell them that you're releasing the informa

Health committee  And the resources.

Health committee  Yes, we did. We made two proposals, one with respect to schedule 1 of Bill C-6. Rather than attempting to list all individual substances that may be found in the Food and Drugs Act, recognizing that from time to time new categories pop up and you'd be going back numerous times to

Health committee  I don't think you even need to do that. I think the intention--and I believe it is possible within the “whereas” portions of the bill--is to make it clear for those who believe that natural health products, which make up 50% of our members' business, might be covered. The “wherea

Health committee  I can make a brief comment—and it goes back to a previous question as well—about what happens to products in international commerce and so on. The resources the government would have to have to pre-approve every single possible product that would ever come on the market before

International Trade committee  Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I'd like to start by thanking you for inviting Consumer Health Products Canada to provide our industry's perspective during the committee's review of a prospective comprehensive economic and trade agreement between

International Trade committee  Thank you. Actually you mentioned the situation between the United States and the United Kingdom. In my example, I was using the United Kingdom as a very strong and positive model. It goes beyond just the data protection that's afforded in the European Union for inventing new

International Trade committee  Sure. In the United Kingdom, when the data protection period came into play through the European Union, and even slightly before that in terms of the U.K. government's recognition that in order to have sustainable health care, people needed to be more involved in their own health

International Trade committee  It's mostly because of two things. One is that companies will invest in markets where they can recoup their investment. That's the crass commercial side of it. So there's nothing in it for the company to introduce it in Canada until such time as they have basically recouped the

International Trade committee  Yes. It's not a simple matter of just exporting it. You would have to register it for sale in Canada, so you would have to go through the same process. We were talking about red tape reduction. For example, there's a process that one goes through to be able to decide on simvasta

International Trade committee  I'll make it a quick answer. What we're seeking is to have the data provisions that are in the switch legislation for the European Union included in the trade agreement so that we can parlay those into a Canadian benefit. The reason for this is that Health Canada has said we wi

International Trade committee  Just to make a finer point, one of the things that often gets confusing, and for me as well, is that the patent extension period isn't really what we're talking about. I can speak to the principle of innovation around having a year to recoup your research costs for innovation in

International Trade committee  Article 74a is what's in the European Union's legislation about a data protection period. It's a straight reference that can be pulled from the EU legislation.

International Trade committee  No.