Good afternoon. I'm going to be chairing the meeting today, since the chairman cannot be here. We have our work cut out for us. Over the coming weeks we are going to be assessing the effectiveness of the Common Drug Review Program. We will be hearing briefs from the representatives of several organizations.
Today we will be hearing from industry representatives. Later we will be hearing witnesses from Health Canada, and the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, as well as experts and patients' groups. This is in fact a topic of concern to various groups in the community that are involved directly or indirectly with prescription drugs.
The fact that today we are hearing industry representatives is not a strategic choice. It is simply due to the availability of those people who were willing to share their perspective with us. I hope that as the weeks go by the members of the committee will be able to form an opinion on these matters. I think that having access to drugs, and the best possible drugs, to treat patients are very important factors.
Before giving over the floor to the groups who are with us today, I would like to welcome Mr. Patrick Brown. He is replacing Mr. Dykstra who had to attend a hearing of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
I think that this committee is terrific. Today we will be hearing from four groups: Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies, the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, AMGEN Canada Inc., and BIOTECanada. Each group will have 10 minutes to present their point of view on the effectiveness of this monitoring procedure for the acceptance of drugs. Before a province includes a drug on its list, a whole array of evaluations must be done. Your role is to enlighten us on this matter and to give us your advice, and ours is to evaluate the overall process.
I will now yield the floor to Mr. Williams. You are accompanied by Mr. Ferdinand, is that correct? The floor is yours.