Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'd like to thank each of the presenters who are here today to answer our questions.
I just want to carry on a little bit along the same line as Ms. Kadis did.
On page 2 of your presentation, Ms. Ballantyne, you talk about Health Canada encouraging reporting from health care professionals, and you say that it's only the manufacturer that is responsible for reporting serious adverse reactions. I have a few questions along this same line.
First of all, what is the definition of “adverse reaction” versus “serious adverse reaction”? Is anything mandatory at all right now for health care professionals?
When I go back to page 5 of your presentation, you talk about the legislative amendments to the Food and Drugs Act and about the authority to make it mandatory for hospitals to report. We're again back to the definition of adverse reaction and serious adverse reaction. Your definition will probably answer this question, but are serious adverse reactions the ones that require hospitalization? How would we know that if health care professionals don't have to report anything? How do we know whether or not there are adverse reactions out there? If it is only the manufacturers that have to do this, isn't there a huge gap? How would the manufacturer even know if there had been a reaction? Isn't it the doctor or the patient who would know whether or not there had been a reaction? If I had one, I wouldn't be contacting the manufacturer of the drug; I'd be contacting my doctor—