International Trade committee  Quite so. And this explains the importance of comparing the words of the industry, which is promising greater spinoffs if we increase its income, with real figures, which show that that is not at all what happens.

International Trade committee  In my opinion, if we want to attract investment in research, inflating the prices is not the way to go. In order to justify including provisions in the free trade agreement on reforming the drug intellectual property regime, people said that this would make Canada more competit

International Trade committee  It's for different reasons. One of the reasons is that we don't have the institutional capacity to contain the cost of drugs. For me, one of the main reasons is not having a universal pharmacare system, as compared to European countries. It's a huge issue. In 1987, the way we

International Trade committee  Absolutely. It's just if we extend the basket to, for example, 13 comparative countries.... There was a good study by the PMPRB on this, I think in 2007. If we include other countries like Australia, the Netherlands, etc., in the end, if we regulate the price based on this new ba

International Trade committee  They are just in place to implement the legislation that was put forward. They are not there to change legislation. This needs to be done politically at the government level.

International Trade committee  This question is important. In my opinion, these are two completely different things. The decline in the industry's investment in the pharmaceutical sector in Canada is due in large measure to emerging economies. In the pharmaceutical sector, developed countries are going to see

International Trade committee  I did not say there's no link between research and development and innovation. I said there's no link between increasing the cost of drugs and increasing the amount invested in Canada by the pharmaceutical industry. Keep in mind that, yes absolutely, in terms of the whole logic

International Trade committee  The comparison with the United Kingdom is interesting. Do not forget that the U.K. has a universal, national drug insurance program. In Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland, patients make no co-payment. Everyone has full or almost full access to that program. There is no problem t

International Trade committee  We have to be careful here. I think that this study was carried out based on the hypothesis that all of Europe's demands with regard to broadening the intellectual property regime in Canada would be met. Normally, health is a matter of provincial jurisdiction, just like nationa

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for the invitation. I am very sorry about the PowerPoint presentation. As I was given very short notice, I prepared it at the last minute. I am going to talk to you about the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and its consequence

Health committee  On the question, if you organize basic research based on the idea of getting monetary dividends out of that, I think—

Health committee  If, at the university level, you can really develop an important expertise with lots of Ph.D.s and professors, you can do amazing research. Basic research right now, first and foremost, is already public research, not only in Canada but all around the world. Basically this is wh

Health committee  Absolutely, but this is a comparison of national R and D investment in the pharmaceutical sector versus national sales of the products.

Health committee  Okay, I can understand your confusion here. The idea is that it's only national R and D inside the country versus all the sales of all the companies around the world inside that country as well. So basically in Canada we spent something like $18 billion to buy patented pharmace

Health committee  The R and D-to-sales ratio is basically a ratio comparing the amount invested in R and D in the country to the amount of total sales at the ex-factory price of patented pharmaceutical products. Switzerland is basically the exception. It is clear on the graph that there are two