As you know, the “Growing Forward” national consultation document did propose targeted investments in the area of veterinary drugs to improve efficiency and to have predictability and reliability in the regulatory approval process.
It's a very interesting question you bring forward, because with some of the process improvements we have put in place and that we are beginning to talk about with the industry—there's a lot of dialogue with industry—the question is, how do you bring the initial studies into Canada so that we can have that research and development part that will allow Health Canada to get a lot more experience with a drug during drug development? Therefore, when you have a submission coming in for approval at the end of drug development, you will have experience, you will have experts who are aware of what's going on, and you will have veterinarians outside and inside Canada who have real experience with your product and know how to use it appropriately. The real balance between safety and efficacy is the appropriate use of these products.
So this is the dialogue we are having with industry. It is saying that we really need to bring in these products earlier on, at that stage, and to have that dialogue with them so that we are very clear about our expectations in terms of regulatory requirements. If we can tell industry very clearl that these are what the requirements are, they will not be going out for three years or five years doing studies that will not meet or fulfill the regulatory requirements of the regulator. That's what we are doing. So “Growing Forward” will provide us with some of the resources to be able to put those strategies into place as we move forward.
The goal, the real objective, of this initiative is really to be competitive. It's good public policy to have good drugs available. We recognize that livestock producers are here and that at this point in time they may not have access to good management health tools. The objective is really to be able to give them, or to create, an environment that is going to move us to that environment.