Welcome to meeting number 121 of the Standing Committee on Health. Today we are discussing the barriers to access to treatment and drugs for Canadians affected by rare diseases and disorders.
I understand there will be an interruption. Apparently, there's going to be a vote sometime this morning. We should be ready for that and we may have to knock off early. I'll try to keep on schedule. I'll try not to be rude but if somebody goes over, I'll have to cut them off because we want to get through as many as we can.
We have two excellent witnesses this morning. From the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, we have Douglas Clark.
From the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, we have Heather Logan. They're both anxious to testify. I talked to them earlier and they're anxious to get going.
Welcome.
We're going to start with Mr. Clark.
You have a 10-minute opening statement.