International Trade committee  Yes, we report on that. Our companies do not report to the PMPRB, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, as the patent drug companies do, but it's in the range of about 12% to 14% of our revenue. The reason for that and why it's actually higher than the patent holding compa

International Trade committee  Again, I think I'll come back to the comments others have made. It's CETA and the TPP in combination. We were very concerned about the patent extension, that the two years would mean that development and manufacturing in Canada would put you behind the curve, that you're not go

International Trade committee  Very quickly I'd like to make a distinction between drug prices and drug costs. Drug prices won't necessarily go up; drug costs will go up. When you have to buy a product at 100% of the cost of a brand-name product instead of 18¢ or 25¢ for a generic, for an extra two years, that

International Trade committee  Thank you. I have a couple of comments. Actually, drug spending in Canada has not increased over the past number of years. That's primarily due to what was called the patent cliff. A number of large brand-name medicines lost patents a few years ago, and when the generics came on

International Trade committee  Yes. I think it's important that.... Again, to come back to my comment about the implementation, these costs will appear only in the future if the agreement is implemented properly. That means patent extensions should not apply to drugs already on the market. They are only to app

International Trade committee  Yes. Another important aspect is that there will be an export provision allowed in the TPP during the extension period. I think one of the things we would say is that how the implementation of the TPP is done will be critically important, and Minister Bains' department, the De

International Trade committee  Mr. Chair, on behalf of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association and our member companies, I'd like to thank you and the other honourable members for this opportunity to participate in the study of the TPP. As you mentioned, I'm joined today by Jody Cox. She's our vice-pr

Health committee  Yes, I can.

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Lobb. Welcome everyone. Thank you for the opportunity for Canada's generic pharmaceutical industry to contribute to your study of Bill C-17, Vanessa's law. Thank you for accommodating our need to appear via video conference this morning. I am Jim Keon, the presid

International Trade committee  Thank you. Our overall objective as a Canadian generic pharmaceutical industry and as part of the worldwide generic pharmaceutical industry is to increase opportunities for exports. We want to export good quality medicines around the world. Canada has a good reputation on generi

International Trade committee  Well, we have a North American Free Trade Agreement, yes.

International Trade committee  Well, the North American Free Trade Agreement has an intellectual property chapter and has obligations that Canada of course meets. The Trans-Pacific Partnership could in theory, if some elements are there, go beyond that and require greater levels of intellectual property protec

International Trade committee  In particular, the United States has promoted—

International Trade committee  Well, they have.... They're picking and choosing. I would say they're cherry-picking. I don't believe the United States is ready to change its intellectual property laws significantly as a result of the TPP. I don't think that will happen. But issues like the biologics industry a

International Trade committee  Tariffs generally for pharmaceuticals are not major impediments to trade. Our industry needs access to products to export on a timely basis. That's what we're concerned about, maintaining timely access.