That's a very important question. I think what also happened a decade or so ago was that the industry itself changed. They changed the way they developed drugs. It used to be that a Pfizer or GlaxoSmithKline or Merck or whatever it was would do everything in-house for itself. Now what happens is that they do some research and development internally, but mostly they go out to hunt and gather. They go and find companies elsewhere.
I'll use a really great example, given the COVID-19 situation. The vaccine that Pfizer has is a combination from a number of different companies. One is BioNTech out of Germany. The other part of the Pfizer vaccine that very few people know about is a company called Acuitas, which is a small Canadian biotech company in Vancouver. They develop the lipid envelope the mRNA code goes into and then goes into the body. Without the Acuitas technology, the Pfizer vaccine doesn't really work.
This is the new type of drug development that's taking place. We have to develop all these early-stage companies that then go into the bigger technologies. They will either be bought by the large pharmaceutical companies or they'll be large commercial companies themselves, depending on the type of technology they're developing. What we need to do is develop a new relationship with the large multinational companies, the early-stage companies and the government that recognizes this new approach to developing drugs. That requires everybody to come together and I think create a different pathway for regulatory approval but also for reimbursement in listings.
It's a very complex area to get into in this committee. I do think we need a recognition that this part of the world has changed. If we want to attract more manufacturing and more investment here, a new relationship is required from that standpoint.
It's a great question. Thank you.