There were a couple of comments around resources. I would like to reiterate that a number of the members felt that we should be better resourced. I just want to put that back on the table.
What we've been doing with our resources internally is twofold. We've been trying to allocate people off more of the processing tasks and onto the ones where they actually have to review an application. So we're trying to be more efficient in our oversight.
The other thing we're spending a lot of time on, that we think is going to become beneficial for us, is electronic processing. What that does is twofold. It makes it less of a burden for industry, because they are able to fill things in electronically. I'd like to take a moment to talk about this.
We've recently piloted a process—and if you speak to any of the members who have been involved in this pilot, it's around 100 or 120 of them—where companies can download with Adobe, which is free to the applicant, and fill in an application to Health Canada, submit it through epost, and we can receive it on our desktop. This is the first time in the branch you're able to go from the desktop of the applicant to the desktop of the reviewer electronically.
I wish this meeting were happening two weeks from now, because next week we're going to be putting out the next version of our database, which references all the warnings and claims that are known around it, so people will be able to incorporate that into the applications that are coming forward. The week after that we're going to be putting out the version that will allow them to tie the compendial applications to that database.
The movement we have been putting towards having this electronically available and working with industry to make sure we reduce the requirements on them, but also, at the same time, to make sure that the products are safe and efficacious, is really coming to fruition right about now.