Evidence of meeting #38 for Health in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was shortages.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Brian O'Rourke  President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health
Jeff Poston  Executive Director, Canadian Pharmacists Association
Joel Lexchin  Professor, School of Health Policy and Management, York University, As an Individual
Jeff Morrison  Director, Government Relations and Public Affairs, Canadian Pharmacists Association
Paul Glover  Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Products and Food Branch, Department of Health

10:25 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Joy Smith

I will, as I've told Ms. Davies, give you the latitude of time, so please answer her question fully.

Thank you.

10:25 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Products and Food Branch, Department of Health

Paul Glover

Thank you, Madam Chair.

With respect to the Auditor General, I would simply state that the audit was conducted prior to the update of new user fees. The challenge we faced when that audit was conducted was that the fees we charged were 14 years old. They were extremely out of date, and the organization was significantly underfunded.

On April 1 we introduced new fees that restore the balance. As a result of those new fees, we've been able to add a significant number of new staff to the organization. I'm very pleased to report to the committee that we are meeting performance targets on all areas except generics, and we are working quickly to get caught up in that one final area so that we can be meeting our performance targets. We've significantly improved as a result of the new fees that have allowed us to charge appropriately for our work; we're now appropriately resourced and have the staff.

10:30 a.m.

NDP

Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC

What about the generics? How long might it take to catch up with whatever backlog there is?

10:30 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Products and Food Branch, Department of Health

Paul Glover

We're working very diligently to determine how quickly.... We've undertaken a number of new processes. Unfortunately, I cannot give the committee an exact date today. We will be happy to follow up.

We're developing a work plan. We've hired new staff. We have to see how the training goes and how quickly they can get up to speed. We're also collaborating with foreign jurisdictions. If another jurisdiction has already approved a drug that is now in the queue for us, we collaborate with them. We want to see how those efforts work out so we can move through and get caught up as quickly as possible.

There is one thing about generics, and it was a deliberate decision. From a public health point of view, our priority was new, innovative therapies that are very important in treating new illnesses. Now we're catching up with generics. We have every intention of getting caught up, because we understand how important they are to the health system. We would be happy to table a more detailed plan with timelines on when we can do that.

On the issue of whether we should be overseeing where there's a sole source, we are happy to do our part. We will need to work with the provinces, and the provinces will need to work with the bulk purchasers. We license numerous suppliers. They are not responsible for telling us if they're supplying; we authorize the drug, give it a DIN, and give the company a notice of compliance. It then goes into the market.

In some instances there is competition among bulk purchasers for the best possible price. They don't collaborate and share that information. There would need to be a willingness from the health system to share with the provinces and with us whom they've chosen to supply which drugs so we could determine if there are sole sources for those drugs as we move forward.

Certainly if there's a willingness among all the jurisdictions to move forward—and we have a regular call with the provinces about that—we will be happy to do our part in that process.

10:30 a.m.

NDP

Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC

We will hope that will happen.

10:30 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Joy Smith

Thank you so much, Mr. Glover, and thank you, Ms. Davies.

I want to thank our guests for coming and giving us this very insightful information. It's very good for us to have it.

We will suspend for one minute.

[Proceedings continue in camera]