International Trade committee  There are two aspects to that. From a cost perspective, as I've said, generics on average now are selling at something like 20% to 25% of the price of an equivalent brand-name product. If you delay for two years, you're paying an extra 75% to 80% on that product for an extra two

International Trade committee  We're asked that question regularly. The answer depends critically on how the bill is implemented, and that's one of the changes we're proposing. The changes should only apply on a prospective, go-forward basis, which means that extra patent protections should only be given to ne

International Trade committee  That is correct, and it is one of the proposed amendments we have suggested. Make it crystal clear that the implementation is only to be on a go-forward basis. If you take a $100 million drug—and there are many, many of those in the Canadian market—and you delay a generic compe

International Trade committee  No. The changes we're proposing are all consistent with CETA. It's just the way the changes are being interpreted in the Patent Act. As I said, 30 pages of this bill are about the Patent Act. We have gone through it very carefully and have noted that in some cases changes are no

International Trade committee  That's what we would like.

International Trade committee  We shared those with the clerk just yesterday.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much. It's nice to be back here. We were here not too long ago talking about the TPP agreement as well, which also affects pharmaceuticals. The generic pharmaceutical companies in Canada, our industry, are primarily pharmaceutical manufacturers and exporters, an

Health committee  Mr. Chair, may I respond very quickly?

Health committee  We have data on the utilization of medicines. Unfortunately, we do not have good data on people who don't take medicines and aren't covered. Our role in the system is to provide good, safe, quality medicines at good prices.

Health committee  As I said, we support the idea of all Canadians having access to the necessary medication. I think that is very important. As most people on the panel have said, it clearly does lead to savings elsewhere in the system. Again, our sector provides headroom for that so that new medi

Health committee  As an organization, as a sector, we actually support more harmonization across Canada. We think widely different programs for drug coverage are not good. If medications work well in one jurisdiction, they should be working just the same in others. We actually have recommended and

Health committee  Yes, it happens all the time. The way a generic is approved is called a double-blind study. Half of volunteers are given a brand medication and half of them are given the generic. Then the doctors and nurses study the reaction in the body to that. Then later, either that weekend

Health committee  Yes, the PMPRB report you refer to was from 2014. Since then, generic prices have continued to decline. You mentioned a 45% decline. The PMPRB reported that generic prices in Canada had declined more than in any other country. I think if you take the current data, and include th

Health committee  There are, in all plans, even on the plans that specify they will only.... They're usually not called generic plans; they're called low-cost alternative plans. They will only pay for the low-cost alternative medicine. All of those plans have the ability for prescribers—doctors—to

Health committee  I endorse what Mr. Casey said, but there are circumstances in some cases where, for whatever reason, a company has not applied for approval of a drug in Canada, so it's not approved for sale in Canada, but it is approved elsewhere. Health Canada does have a program for exceptiona