The topic I focused on today was faster access to non-patented generic medicines, which was one of the objectives of the national pharmaceutical strategy of the 10-year health care plan. As I mentioned, the provinces have taken a number of measures to do that. Where the problem has come in is at the federal level.
I would say the generic industry in Canada is a real success story. We have jobs, exports. We do double the R and D of the brand-name companies, and we provide about half of all prescriptions in Canada.
We have a very long way to go, however, because in the United States generics are now filling 67% of all prescriptions. We're filling only 49% in Canada. Our industry, our sector, has a very long way to go to provide what it's doing.
The current changes are going to extend monopolies that run directly counter to the changes that were made in October 2006 and confirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada. We're, frankly, very surprised and disappointed. We think the government should probably pull those out and have a broader debate about pharmaceutical patent policies. That's what they want to do.