International Trade committee  Yes. The patents will be extended by two years. That will occur in the future. The agreement is to apply patent extensions to products coming on the market after the agreement comes into force, so perhaps in 2015. At that time, patents will be extended by two years. By definiti

International Trade committee  The best study that was done during the negotiations was by Professor Aidan Hollis, in Calgary, and Paul Grootendorst, at the University of Toronto. Their estimate was that for the full range of commitments that the Europeans were demanding at that time, the cost could be up to $

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good morning. On behalf of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association and our member companies, I would like to thank you, Chair, and honourable members, for this opportunity to participate in your study of CETA, the comprehensive economic a

Health committee  I'll let Dr. D'Cunha jump in here.

Health committee  Well, as I understand it, the concern was that the generic medicine was interchanged with the brand-name medicine without the patient’s being notified. We talked earlier about the multiple jurisdictions in Canada. The issue of whether a patient should be notified when products

Health committee  I'd have to get back to you on that. I'm not aware that any of our members are producing that product.

Health committee  First of all, the product is approved by Health Canada. Health Canada has not determined that it's an unsafe product that should be banned. Our manufacturers produce the product according to all of the Health Canada guidelines. The abuse of OxyContin did occur. The rapid rise in

Health committee  Thank you. Good afternoon. On behalf of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, I would like to thank the Chair and the honourable members for this opportunity to participate in your study of addressing prescription drug abuse. I am the president of the CGPA, and I

Industry committee  Yes. We'd be happy to share the legal opinions I'm referring to.

Industry committee  I congratulate Mr. Brian Jean. He congratulated us on our work with Health Partners International. I think he does a great job in promoting them and in getting medicines abroad.

Industry committee  Yes, I think trademark law is interpreted differently in different countries. We're not aware of any country that has adopted a definition identical to what the Canadian government is proposing. As well, the International Trademark Association, in their brief, also expressed con

Industry committee  It would make it far more efficient. Often it's not immediately obvious whether these are counterfeit medicines or not. An inspector or group could really bring that expertise to bear. I think that's a recommendation we would make.

Industry committee  On prescription medicines, with the increased enforcement powers given to the Canada Border Service Agency, one of the things that we would recommend is increased cooperation with Health Canada and their inspectors, who I think are the real experts. There needs to be well-establi

Industry committee  This definition has been in the current act for more than 50 years now.

Industry committee  That's correct. These trademark cases around trade dress in pharmaceuticals have been interpreted many, many times through the opposition board and then on to the Federal Court and even up to the Supreme Court, which has commented that the definition of distinctiveness is critica