Yes, I think the group that does the studies has to be independent. Usually when Health Canada is involved, they work with industry, and the necessary arm's-length independence for the studies is missing.
I think Alan's suggestion is a good one. You need an arm's-length industry, but you also need independent research centres to conduct those studies, to analyze those results. As I mentioned, a researcher recently re-analyzed the data that were submitted to the FDA by drug companies for 12 different SSRIs, anti-depressant drugs, to treat depression, and they found that the results were positive for only half of them, whereas industry found positive results for 95% of them. There's a problem there. Those data are not being analyzed in the right way. So you really need the studies to be independently done.
Just because industry has manufactured those products doesn't mean they should be running those studies. Let the researchers do their work, independent researchers. So you'd need a system of accrediting research centres that they follow the appropriate protocols, that they have the appropriate expertise. Europe is currently going in that direction. They're going to set up a network of 60 research centres. Individual centres will determine whether they meet the accreditation standards, and then they'll determine which centres will conduct which studies.
I think that's a far better way than the risk management plan, which means negotiating with industry as to what will be done, without standards in place, and then millions and millions being spent on research that doesn't really get you to where you want to be anyway. It doesn't produce the results that you really need--those independent, rigorously designed and conducted studies.