First of all, I'd like to reiterate that Dr. Prigent is not representing Pfizer. Actually, if he was representing Pfizer, the outcry wouldn't be from the community; it would be from all the pharmaceutical companies that would also want to have a representative.
Dr. Prigent is representing himself. He is bringing his unique expertise to the table. It's an expertise, quite frankly, that I cannot believe was not there at CIHR previously. We're talking about the sector that is the third largest investor in R and D in this country. We're talking about a major player in health research, and we wouldn't talk to them? We wouldn't ensure that we align a vision?
I think we have to start doing things differently. I think we really have to first listen to each other and understand how Canada can do better on the world stage in terms of being truly competitive in health research. That's what we're talking about here. If we want to align our agendas, if we want to do that and as a country be competitive, we have to look at ways to work together with the private sector. I think we need to learn how to do that. Who better qualified than someone like Dr. Prigent to help us do that better?