Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to all of you for coming.
Ms. Wong-Rieger, thank you for coming. It's good to see you again.
You've made some mention of our pricing policies and how there have been concerns that they are making this a non-competitive environment. As you may be aware, Canada pays the second- or third-highest costs for drugs in the world. Many other countries are paying less and have universal pharmacare systems. Some are a mixture of public and private. Others are completely public. New Zealand, for instance, is a country with a small population over a reasonably large area. They have a universal program. They pay much, much less for drugs. The government buys commonly used drugs for probably less than a tenth of what we pay.
Are countries like this that are paying much less for drugs having problems with the marketplace not wanting to develop new drugs? Are people in New Zealand having trouble accessing them? Are people throughout the EU, which is paying much less for drugs, having trouble accessing drugs for rare disorders?