That's a very powerful description you gave, and there are a number of different elements that I need to respond to in that.
First, without question, the greater the volume of drugs any purchaser is acquiring, the lower the price will be, generally speaking.
You mentioned the New Zealand model in some of those price comparisons. We have another research study coming out in the next few weeks. Some of the problems with the PMPRB studies that do these global comparisons is the ex-factory price. It's not the end consumer price. We've commissioned a study that's looking at the actual cost to the payer, whether it's the government or the private sector or the patient him or herself. There are great disparities when you look at it from that perspective, compared to just the ex-factory price. That's point number one.
Point number two is that there are also qualitative issues when you go to a central sole-source supply as New Zealand has done. We've done a lot of comparisons there, and there are some unintended consequences. For example, we know that to get innovative medicines approved by their purchasing plan, the time frame is about twice as long as it is in many other countries. People who are relying on critical new medications are seeing undue delays. We see significantly fewer drugs being listed by New Zealand than in other countries.
Again, there are advantages to single sourcing or at least to volume purchasing, but there are some unintended consequences that people need to consider before they commit to that kind of model. We are about to release some research to help inform that opinion.