You've answered my question.
Thank you.
In your brief you say something about getting support from the drug industry. I'm looking for it right now: “The pharmaceutical industry is a major supporter.” You didn't declare your financial support, so I think that's important for everyone to know. As Terence Young said at the beginning, none of his money for the coalition comes from the corporate sector.
I think what we're finding is that there are some legitimate concerns that people are having a difficult time raising because there's been such a hold over this agenda from the brand name drug companies. We saw it with many of the presenters, and we're very concerned.
In fact, the importance of this meeting here today is not to focus simply on adverse drug reactions, although that's an important part of it. The point of this meeting actually should be to understand what the government is really about, and Michèle Brill-Edwards will have a sense of this. So will Terence Young, because we've been through this many times before, and this is a government bent on totally revamping the Food and Drugs Act in the name of modernization.
What we're seeing is a move away from the precautionary principle, which most Canadians actually support, the “do no harm” principle, to the risk management model, which is to let the drugs on the market and then worry about the impact. If there's a reaction, then let's just allow people to sue the drug companies, because that's a lot better and a lot cheaper than having to really make sure our products are safe beyond a reasonable doubt.
So I want to ask Michèle Brill-Edwards—I know you've been active on this file for over 10 years—how many times you've seen this agenda item come to the fore, how you and the coalition have helped stop it in the past, and what we can do now to bring some light to this whole issue.
Terence, you identified Vioxx as a good example of what's wrong with the progressive licensing system, and other concerns around transparency and accountability, which I think we need to hear about as much as we need to hear from you about mandatory adverse drug reporting.
So Michèle and then Terence.