Thank you, Madam Chairperson, and thanks to all of you for coming back to our committee.
I want to go to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. I think we have lots of questions here. I know you've given some explanation for a doubling of the budget, but it sure doesn't seem to resonate with folks when they see brand-name drug prices going up all the time, drug prices skyrocketing, no controls at all. So I'd love further explanation on a doubling of the budget.
First, I'd like to start with your present mandate and how you're executing it, especially with respect to setting the maximum in terms of therapeutic class. When generic drugs come on the market, it doesn't seem that the brand-name drug companies actually reduce their prices to compete with the generic companies. So it means that the maximum price in the therapeutic class doesn't drop, and it means nobody is getting a break. We waited patiently all these years for the extended and extended again patent protection, and finally generics get a chance to go on the market and there's no change in the brand-name drug prices.
I want to know what you're doing to address the situation. Are you doing anything to restrict this high level of pricing to be only on new brand-name drugs—I know there aren't very many—or new patented drugs coming on the market?