International Trade committee  I would say that the gap is now closer with the CETA and what we're trying to do with CETA. We're looking at a two-year gap there. Maybe with the U.S. I think it's still a little longer, because there are additional things, such as if it's a pediatric product or an orphan drug. T

International Trade committee  I'm suggesting.... I'll give you an example. I spent two and a half weeks at MIT earlier in December, and I was quite shocked to find, having gone to Boston after three years, that almost every third person I met was either a Canadian or Canadian-educated. My questions were alway

International Trade committee  If we want to be global leaders, we're always comparing ourselves, really, to the top-tier regulators and regimes. What we consider top tier are the U.S., the EU, Japan, and then Australia, really. With Canada, it would be five. We consult with each other a lot, certainly on heal

International Trade committee  Let me again start from just the CETA one and move on to this one. I'm hoping this will do the same thing for us. It will create an even playing field around, first of all, the IP policy. Frankly, for any knowledge-based industry, and ours in particular, that's the asset we have.

International Trade committee  The technologies.

International Trade committee  Let me just explain. The government support goes mostly into basic research and the academic environment, which is very important because that's the watering hole for discovery. We then have to translate that discovery and make it investable. In other words, we have to validate t

International Trade committee  Canada does not have that environment. If we just look at B.C.'s track record, we've had a plethora of companies mushrooming, we've had many successful technologies. They very rarely anchor here. We were lucky with two companies, Angiotech and QLT, that anchored for some length o

International Trade committee  No, the early stage issues are IP-related. We would have had additional investment if there was better IP protection, there is no question. The difference is that we would have had industry investment, private sector investment. You just want government to be the catalyst to kick

International Trade committee  Absolutely. We're then competitive with Germany or England, or anywhere else.

International Trade committee  With the TPP, I think we have to have competitive IP policies with those 12 countries. In other words, the U.S. has a very strong IP policy. We are still not where the U.S. is, but if we're at least close to that, then we are in good stead.

International Trade committee  To improve the regime.

International Trade committee  Than which agreements, sorry?

International Trade committee  As we stand now, our criteria are softer for the Canadian agreement. For the TPP I think it will be equivalent and it will put us on par. With CETA, which is what I am more involved and familiar with, it has now brought us on the same level playing field if we move ahead, wherea

International Trade committee  I have details on that, because we've compared them country by country, so I can certainly let you have them. But off the tip of my tongue, I wouldn't be able to tell you how that stands. It brings an even playing field now for us.

International Trade committee  Good afternoon, and thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak today. By way of introduction, I'll just say that I'm the president and CEO for the Centre for Drug Research and Development, which is Canada's fully integrated national drug development and commercia