Thanks.
For me the issue here today is that it's all about patient access, and the CDR seems to be involved in cost containment. Duplication does exist; the CDR does the same work that provincial plans do and that Health Canada does. There are significant delays, there's lack of accountability, there's non-transparency, and in the end patients suffer.
CDR and CADTH tout evidence-based decision-making. Why is it that other countries such as Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K. are providing much greater access—more than 50% more—to innovative medicines for their people, given that they are reviewing the same drugs, the same science, the same evidence-based approach? Mr. Williams, why is CDR blocking access to these same innovative therapies for Canadians?