I'll start, and I imagine Craig will have more details. I don't know about Gordon.
Glyphosate is a generic name for an active ingredient. A large number of products that are registered have glyphosate as the active ingredient. In Canada, under the current data protection regime it's been almost impossible for a generic glyphosate to be registered, because the current data protection scheme continued to give extended data protection as we asked registrants--or registrants even just volunteered--to give us modern data.
We looked at that and said it was essentially an evergreening of the data protection. With the new Pest Control Products Act we didn't need to have the voluntary submission of new data from industry. Whenever we as the regulator believed there was a need, we could demand that the data come to us.
So we were in the position to be able to say we could revise our data protection policy and have a certain limited period of data protection, and thus for the first time in Canada start to give generic products a possibility.
In the States there is some glyphosate that is still innovator and there's some glyphosate that's generic. The generic glyphosate is considerably cheaper, and we don't have that in Canada right now. We have started talking to the generic industries to foster them coming to Canada.
So we know there's been a difference in fostering a generic industry in Canada, and that the data protection policy is a key. But even with innovators.... There have been a number of studies--Craig is probably much more aware of them, as well as some of my colleagues in Agriculture Canada--and I've looked at some of them. You cannot predict whether the price is going to be cheaper in Canada or the States, because there are so many business decisions that go into that.
So we've been clear that we want to foster generics, while at the same time making sure we are getting new products introduced. Part of our sort of vision now at PMRA is to reduce the specific costs of registration in Canada so we're on par with the States and it's not a disincentive to bring a product to Canada.