Thank you, Madam Chair.
My questions are for Mr. Gagnon.
First of all, even though you didn't tailor your presentation specifically to us, I thought it was excellent, full of information that I look forward to absorbing later when I read it more closely. The more we talk, the more the same questions keep coming up, although we are delving deeper into the subject.
The fact is the pharmaceutical sector is very lucrative, as we all know. I will explain what I mean a bit more afterwards. You showed where things stand on slides 6 and 7. The industry is even more lucrative than any other area of activity. Slide 11 illustrates what is, to some extent, idleness on the part of companies as far as focusing on innovation goes. They prefer to fall back on molecules that require less effort, but promise just as much profit.
Furthermore, I'm glad my colleague Mr. Carrie mentioned an industry problem when he asked a question earlier. New molecules and new drugs are tested against placebos as opposed to existing molecules whose therapeutic properties have already been approved.
Slide 19 shows that public financial support is a bad investment. At the very least, we could make public investment in the industry more effective, both federally and provincially.
The conclusion I draw from all of that is there is too much marketing and too little innovation. You made four suggestions. We hope the government will take our study of technological innovation under consideration and adopt the right solutions. In the short term, what should we target first?