Colin, this is the key question. That's a very good question.
Let me try to frame this. You know we have been dealing with a major isotope crisis of molybdenum and technetium; they're 80% of the isotopes we use in nuclear medicine. Rare disorders need rare isotopes. It's very difficult to determine regulatory process, to have access to import into Canada what I'm going to call those rare isotopes. The way we're trying to cope with the system is we're trying every single path we can.
I'm going to give you a specific example. Three weeks ago, I got a phone call from Montreal, then from Halifax, and yesterday from Vancouver, to let me know that the special access program is now closing the importation of yttrium, which Maureen mentioned, just because the companies have not submitted a proper dossier to Health Canada to import those isotopes. The issue is that those companies cannot submit a proper dossier based on clinical trials in Canada. It would take 15 to 20 years. In other words, the processes with Health Canada are antiquated. What we have found is that it really depends on the person you're dealing with in a country of overzealous bureaucratic processes.
So in the case of neuroendocrine tumours, for example, that's something that we have had as a special access program for 15 years, and for 15 years we've been told we have to do the proper study, while, as Maureen said, the European Union has proper access to those drugs. There's a major disconnect between patient needs, Canadian needs, and the health care regulatory process.
One of the reasons why I really wanted to come here--and again, thank you for the invitation--is to plead with this committee to make sure that we put in place with Health Canada the proper processes for Canadians to have access to rare drugs or rare isotopes for rare disorders, besides the big picture, which is a totally different problem.