Health committee  Good morning. As mentioned, I'm David Johnston, president and CEO of the Canadian Association for Pharmacy Distribution Management, or CAPDM, as we are known. On behalf of CAPDM, I thank the members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health for the opportunity to outline the role of the pharmaceutical wholesalers with respect to drug shortages.

Health committee  I think the accuracy is correct. But what you have is the first iteration. The industry has come together through the drug shortage working group, and in response to the minister's requests has come up with a solution on how to proactively and accurately report any shortages. That's the process that's going on right now, but it's not finished yet.

Health committee  Sure. We're very much a part of the working group that everyone has spoken of here, providing our expertise and knowledge. The important thing to note is that with pharmaceutical wholesalers, we're responsible for the distribution of available product. We don't have the access to root causes of a shortage or to the situations that may occur with some manufacturer or another.

Health committee  Well, I think it's what the working group and people are focusing in on, which is making sure that when information is available, it gets posted through the website or other means possible. We fully support the process that's in place now. As we mentioned, the working group is working on these sites.

Health committee  To talk to MPs? I don't believe we have spoken to MPs. As an association, we've been working through the working group. We have regular interaction with Health Canada and the people within that part of the government, certainly in the development of regulations and those elements that impact our business, but as an association we have not approached MPs.

Health committee  Thank you very much. My name is David Johnston. I am president and CEO of CAPDM, which is the Canadian Association for Pharmacy Distribution Management. CAPDM represents Canada's pharmacy supply chain, and counts within its membership, pharmaceutical distributors, self-distributing pharmacy chains, and prescription and non-prescription drug manufacturers.

Health committee  First of all, many of the other provinces considered their alcohol distribution systems and then backed away from them, because they recognized that a lot of retroactive investment will have to be made into it. When it comes to the movement of the products, I think the pharmaceutical distributors industry stands out in its ability to already track the product and also in its ability to recall the product and get it back in as quickly as we do.