I think it's a balance, as with most things. If you look at the pharmaceutical industry and the licensing requirements for Health Canada, that negotiation could take place with protections for trade secrets and these sorts of things, provided the experts at that level were fully informed.
The catch comes later when it's released on the market and you have some concerns over the safety of a product. There was an issue with a drug used in open heart surgery, where it transpired that there may have been a body of research that the pharmaceutical company had omitted to give, certainly to the public domain, even though Health Canada may have seen it. It's a balance you need to strike somehow between protecting the individual and the practitioners who use these drugs in good faith, and yet balancing the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry.
As a physician and a patient advocate, I would have to say you need to tip that balance in favour of the patient.