Thank you for the question.
Just to be clear, the regulatory mandate of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board is to ensure that prices charged by patentees for their patented medicines sold in Canada are not excessive. The role of the board and its staff is to investigate prices of patented medicines that appear to be excessive. This may result in a report to the chairman for a possible hearing, once board staff and the patentee have determined that the matter can't be resolved by a voluntary compliance undertaking from the patentee.
Currently there are several patented drug products that appear to be priced excessively. Board staff will submit a report to the chairman for the issuance of a notice of hearing on one or all matters, if it's not possible to resolve these voluntarily.
As I mentioned the other day in response to a question from Mr. Malo, there has been a change over the last while with respect to the way the practice of that board is carried out. Traditionally, going back to the mid-1980s, when it was set up, most matters were resolved voluntarily. There has been a tendency lately for more matters to go to a contested hearing.
In 2009-10, the board completed four hearings and has issued to date two notices of hearing. At this time there are currently nine ongoing hearings, three of which are at the decision stage.