Thank you for coming, Minister.
I have three questions. The first is with regard to the issue you raised around prevention. When we did the post-market surveillance study at this committee, it was very clear that in future, with personalized medicine, we can sort out that certain people have genetic predispositions to a certain drug interaction or to an adverse reaction. In the science around the definition of serious risk or injury or harm, how will the department determine whether it's a number of people with a serious predisposition to a problem or whether it's a general problem for which the drug must be recalled for the public good?
Second, as my colleague was asking, could you explain your thinking on why toilet bowl cleaners are included in this because it's a disinfectant, but natural health products are not?
Third, I think we know, whether it's trying to talk to physicians about SARS or whether it's trying to talk to physicians about recalls, that the time that elapses before Health Canada makes a decision and it actually gets out to the doctors is.... From the time when you make your decision, I may have in my office been prescribing this drug for three weeks before I get the letter from Health Canada. In 2014 do you think Health Canada has the resources or the systems in place to actually communicate with the front-line providers to tell them they have to stop prescribing this today, and not when...?
I can remember one situation when I was up all night delivering a baby, and it was on the news that a drug had been recalled. One of my patients, who'd been watching the news, came in and asked me the next morning what I thought about that drug being removed from the market. I wouldn't have known about it if my astute patient hadn't filled me in.
Those are the three things that I would like to know about in terms of whether those are areas for amendments.