Health committee  Thank you, Madam Vice-Chair. I am President of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association. I'm going to make my presentation in English. I would like to start by saying that we appreciate the opportunity to make comments before your committee on the common drug review. Th

Health committee  Yes, thank you. On the last issue, we deal with the drug program managers and health ministries in all the provinces, and I think as long as they are paying for the drugs, there is virtually no chance they are ever going to cede authority back to some other agency as to which dr

Health committee  Yes. Thank you. In fact, the common drug review, I argued, is an essential part of the Canadian process now for brand name drugs. I think in large part it was recommended by the provinces, asked for by the provinces, and that's how it came about. For generic drugs, we have a di

Health committee  I don't think the common drug review would want to do that. They would see it as a duplication.

Health committee  If I could just respond to Mr. Fletcher, who asked about generic drug prices, yes, a study last year by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board showed that generic drugs here were priced higher than those in other countries. In fact, many provinces are now taking measures about

Health committee  What I mentioned was that the provincial government in Ontario has already passed a regulation. For the vast majority of generic drugs, the Ontario government will not list them on its formulary unless they are at least 50% lower than the brand name product. In Quebec, they have

Health committee  These prices will probably be lower than those in the United States on the majority of products, yes.

Health committee  That's a very interesting question. Actually, about 15% of our revenues go back into research and development. That meets the definitions of the tax act. The brand name companies in Canada have been declining. They spend about 8%. Surprisingly, we spend twice as much in Canada o

Health committee  Generic drug companies are of value to the health care system in that after patents expire we provide products at much lower prices.

Health committee  That is not the job of generic drug companies.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, committee members, for having me here today. My name is Jim Keon and I'm the President of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, the representative body for generic pharmaceutical companies in Canada. With me is Jack Kay, the President of Apo

Industry committee  Clearly, it is the generic companies, and not the large multinationals, that need this act. The legislation refers to patented medicines. The changes that we have proposed need to be made in order to make the act more effective. The existing act is overly complex and negotiations

Industry committee  We would rather see the list abolished, but in actual fact, that's not what is most important. However, the list is an example of a superfluous provision. Anytime we want to add new products to the list, it requires a great deal of work on the part of government officials, compan

Industry committee  To respond quickly, the tax changes I think are great. I think for donations, philanthropy, it will increase the incentives for companies to do that. I would agree with Mr. Williams that we need a comprehensive approach. That's why we're saying changes to this legislation are nec

Industry committee  The other reason why countries don't want to self-identify is they become a lightning rod for political attention and negative attention from the brand-name pharmaceutical industry. Recently in Thailand, with a drug called Aluvia, an anti-AIDS medicine, the Thai government said