Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Christian Blouin. I am the Director of Public Health Policy and Government Relations for Merck Frosst Canada. I am accompanied by my colleague Rob Livingston, Ottawa Director of Merck Frosst, who will serve as a resource person for me during the question period.
First, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. Since our time is limited, I am going to focus only on the National Immunization Strategy. I would also like to thank Dr. Francoeur, who is giving me an extraordinary opportunity to build on what she had said.
Merck Frosst is asking the government of Canada for three specific things. The first is a commitment to renew the NIS program funding for provincial and territorial immunization programs. Specifically, that means the federal budget should include $100 million per year to continue to fund the existing program. It should also include adequate money to continue to fund the NIS infrastructure.
Our second request is that you expand the NIS. We believe a further $300 million per year should be provided to the provinces and territories under the program to add new and emerging vaccines.
Our third request is that the NIS funding be separated from the Canadian Health Transfer Payments to the provinces and territories, to ensure the funds can be tracked and evaluated, and to guarantee they will be used specifically for immunization programs.
We agree with this committee's view that recognized the need for our country to do what is necessary to ensure our citizens and businesses are healthy. Merck Frosst Canada is the Canadian subsidiary of a major international research-based pharmaceutical company. We invest $120 million annually in Canadian research which improves both the health and economic status of Canadians. We are keenly interested in the health of Canadians, and of our business and the economy in which we operate.
Improving health starts with the prevention of illness. It is well-documented that immunization programs are the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases.
In 2001, the government of Canada understood this and provided infrastructure funding of $45 million over five years for the NIS.
In 2004, it added $100 million per year for three years for the provinces and territories to pay for new immunization programs against meningitis, chickenpox, pneumococcal disease and whooping cough. That funding runs out March 31, 2007 and that is why I am here today.
Because of the NIS, provincial and territorial jurisdictions have expanded their publicly funded organization programs. Now, Canada—like the US, the UK and many other industrialized countries—has virtually universal coverage for these important vaccines.
If the NIS funding is not renewed, some provinces and territories may be forced to revert to the old system and not update the immunization programs for new vaccines. This could jeopardize the health of Canadians. Immunization could fall below the current standard of care we have now in Canada, and below the standards of other industrialized countries. Canada will once again have a patchwork across the country, as was previously the case, resulting in inequitable access for province to province, and we will begin to see diseases we had basically “cured” or prevented rising up again because infectious diseases don't stop at provincial borders. We have seen it with SARS., There the threat of a flu epidemic. We know about the West Nile virus and yesterday, the Minister of Health mentioned botulism.
We see this as a national responsibility. We strongly urge you to consider our request. Why should it be expanded?
New vaccines are imminent. I would like to focus mainly on one of them, Gardasil. Dr. Francoeur alluded to this vaccine which protect against cancer, and we are pleased to have it; Merck Frosst actually discovered it. Each year, 1,400 Canadian women are diagnosed with HPV, and 400 will die.
We are all saddened, with good reason, to hear about the death of a Canadian soldier. I would like to put things in perspective, without taking anything away from Canadian soldiers. But it must be said that one Canadian woman dies every day from cervical cancer. There is a way to end that.
The overall yearly cost of cervical cancer has been estimated at $270 million. The vaccine would be far less expensive.
We are urging the committee to consider expanding the National Immunization Strategy and to ensure there is a mechanism in place to cover new vaccines as they are marketed in the future.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.