Thank you for the question.
Because it is a little technical, I will answer in English.
I am not going to speak to the specifics of the case, but I would be very happy to take the committee through the process. There was a question asked, Madam Chair, about the process that would perhaps be helpful to understand.
Again, the vast majority of the drugs that we deal with are, in fact, drugs in this country that have gone through the clinical trial process and that have actually been reviewed and then approved by Health Canada for sale and use in this country.
We also understand there are instances where there are either emergencies or very unusual circumstances where practitioners feel that a product that is not approved, has not gone through the clinical trial process, and has not received a notice of compliance from Health Canada is appropriate. We therefore have the special access framework to deal with these situations.
Perhaps I could just mention the roles that individuals play here, as was mentioned. Practitioners are responsible for initiating the request of this program. We dealt with—the minister mentioned the numbers, but I'll mention them again—25,000 requests last year for over 500 different drug products for about 70,000 patients. We are talking about a substantial program. The practitioners make the request. They identify the particular drug from the particular source. They give a brief history of the patient's condition and the therapies that have been tried or considered. Basically, they then provide some data respecting what they are proposing to use. The program then takes that information, considers it, and evaluates the nature of the emergency and the drug. In many cases, these may be drugs that we are aware of from other requests and we may be able to look at that. We operate this program 24/7. We understand that in emergency situations there will be an urgent need.
Manufacturers also need to have some responsibility for deciding that they will provide the drug. Obviously, they are providing it in circumstances where there is not a notice of compliance and no Health Canada review. The manufacturers also have to be willing to provide the drug. We don't have any authority to compel the manufacturers to provide a drug. There can, in some cases, be circumstances where a manufacturer is willing to release a drug but Health Canada is not, and vice versa.
There are a very large number of these requests. Most of them are, as the minister mentioned, processed within 24 hours. Some do take longer to evaluate if they are new to the program. As I say, we work very hard to make sure that service is available on an ongoing and 24/7 basis.