Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to all our guests.
I'm interested to know a few things today, very briefly. One would be your rate of refusal for applications. I know that many, it's been suggested, are voluntarily withdrawn. I'm interested to know how many are failing the approval process and why.
Also, I'd like to know where the data is going. We have recently been discussing post-market surveillance and adverse drug reactions and how industry has that information, as well as doctors, but not on a mandatory basis. Hospitals will have it shortly. Where is this information going so that we know whether there are adverse reactions to natural health products? Who is collecting the data?
I am a little bit concerned that research has been withdrawn from the directorate. I'm also interested to know about that. Why was that withdrawn? I would think it would be very important, considering that so many Canadians are using natural health products, probably more so, in particular, with an aging population. It's a very important area.