As everyone is probably aware, in budget 2019 we were pleased to see investments for the creation of a Canadian drug agency. When we received the interim report from Dr. Hoskins in March of this year, he and the committee members made one recommendation for sure. They indicated that regardless of which model we use for a national pharmacare program, whatever option it may be, the foundational piece is the creation of this drug agency.
The drug agency in question will have a twofold mandate. First, the drug agency's role will be to put together and maintain a formulary. The second part of its job is going to be to negotiate drug prices. We certainly recognize, for a national pharmacare program, the need to address the area of cost and get the best value. As a result of that, this drug agency will be able to have better negotiation power, because from there they'll be purchasing more medications. I'm very pleased that we've received the funding in budget 2019 and will be moving forward with the creation of this drug agency.
Finally, with respect to budget 2019 as well, there was a significant investment made in the area of rare diseases. In fact, $1 billion will be invested.
Once again, those were two areas that Dr. Hoskins was very clear on in the interim report, so I'm extremely pleased that we received the funding in budget 2019 to address the two matters.