In terms of the economic agreement currently being negotiated, the information we were able to get indicates that the chapter on the co-ownership of intellectual property is supposed to increase the protection period for patents. The duration of patents per se does not actually go up, but as a result of three factors, including data protection for clinical studies, the effect will be the same.
This was part of a study done by people in pharmacology at the University of Toronto, I believe. For Quebec only, the potential increase in the patent protection period would cost roughly $278 million. That worries us because medications are already very expensive and patent protection in Canada is one of the longest in the world, as we know.