That's right, and you want to put patients' lives in the balance. As Robyn had pointed out earlier, you are experimenting on people. The administrators in the FDA have admitted, in a published journal, that in the first two years they don't recommend taking a new drug because we just don't have the experience.
We do have the systems in place for some of the life-threatening conditions now, and there are certain provisions in the bill that I would support for the post-marketing. I mean, you do need to allow Health Canada to share its information with committees that might be involved in setting up post-market surveillance studies and so on, taking advantage of the electronic databases. We need that post-market component, absolutely.
But on the pre-market, there is a clause in the bill that I noticed. Right now our Food and Drugs Act is very vague, saying simply that the minister will ensure that sufficient studies are conducted to ensure that the drugs are safe and effective, and it's similarly vague in the current proposed legislation.
Maybe we need more detail around that. Maybe we need more detail as to the kinds of studies, that the three phases of clinical trials need to be conducted, except for certain conditions, life-threatening conditions.
As Alan pointed out, it's not the majority of drugs that need to be fast-tracked; it's perhaps those that address the life-threatening conditions.