Health committee  Very simply, they recommended to Zamboni that he should do things the way they're normally done—that is, go first to a phase one and two trial before moving to a large number of patients, as we always do with clinical trials. It's the normal prudent process. You first demonstrate that it is safe, you demonstrate therapeutic efficacy on a small number of patients, and then if there are no problems and if things are positive, you ramp it up to a large number of patients.

Health committee  I am not aware of any precedent. Irrespective of MS now—and I think I've been very clear on this topic, publicly—I think it would be a dangerous precedent to legislate the type and the object of research that we carry out and that the federal government would be supporting in this country.

Health committee  There is no doubt that personalized medicine is a major hope for all countries. Progress has been made in research in the U. S. and in Europe. Asia is also beginning to see some advancement. I think that Canada was lagging a bit behind in this area. That is why a major strategy on personalized medicine was launched a few weeks ago and was announced jointly by ministers Aglukkaq and Goodyear.

Health committee  That's an excellent question, Dr. Carrie. As you know, one of the numerous difficulties, to start with, has been in establishing protocols of research to even demonstrate whether or not there was a higher prevalence of an association of CCSVI with patients with MS than with patients without MS.

Health committee  Obviously, I cannot comment on the policy aspects of things, that would be for Health Canada.

Health committee  I'm sure they will be happy to provide you with an answer when they meet with you. What I can tell you, however, is that we have been very sensitive and sensitized to this very important project for many years. You are absolutely right that the nature of these diseases is such that very often the pharmas are not all that interested in engaging in research because the potential markets are extremely small.

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I would first like to thank your committee for inviting me to speak to you about research activities dealing with neurological diseases in Canada and to provide you with an update on recent activity related to multiple sclerosis. Today I would like to highlight some of CIHR's strategic initiatives that will help us better understand, prevent, or provide better treatments for neurological diseases.

Health committee  We can send you the presentation.

Health committee  As you know, Canada is extremely successful in the area of neurosciences, mental health, and addiction. Actually we're talking about tobacco. We also have researchers known internationally for their work on the control of tobacco use. Broadly, for the year 2009-10, if I remember properly, we've spent over $106 million in research in that field alone, and that's really covering all areas.

Health committee  As far as I understand it, there is.

Health committee  This is correct. You are very well informed. We will indeed be funding a $1 million endowed chair on autism, most specifically to look at the clinical treatment of autism.

Health committee  Actually there have been several financial allocations. In fact, there's a provision for a roughly $25 million investment from CIHR to be matched by different countries. We're talking about several MOUs. There's one with the U.K. and Germany; there's one with France; there's one with the U.S.

Health committee  The drug safety and effectiveness network has been launched and is very successful. It has several collaborative centres we've set up that collaborate through the country. One of the major successes is that, respectively, they've managed not only to access data banks from the different provinces, but also, for research purposes, to merge the results.

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  Totally.