No, that's good.
I'm going to spend a bit of time on the last one, because I think Trikafta is a very interesting example of this. I think every single Parliamentarian wants every single Canadian who needs Trikafta to get access to it, and that's not happening today.
Here's a brief history of it. We know that it was a research team at the Hospital for Sick Children at the University of Toronto that discovered a CF gene in the 1980s. It was the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and clinics that identified almost all of the research subjects from families in Canada. They donated blood samples. The Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research supported the research. CFF gave $150 million to Vertex in 2000 to do the research.
When the company finally launched the precursor to that, Kalydeco, they priced it at $294,000 annually for two pills a day. Twenty-nine researchers contacted them; they wrote Vertex's CEO to express their dismay and disappointment that this successful drug was diminished by this “unconscionable price”, in their words.
Aidan Hollis, whom you reference, studied Vertex's pricing for Kalydeco and Orkami—a precursor as well to Trikafta—estimates that the company's profits from the two drugs will be $21.1 billion. He concludes that the high prices are not justified by costs or the need to support the innovation. The price seems more designed to reward shareholders.
My question is, what can we do to get Trikafta into the hands of Canadians? Is it time that the Canadian government used compulsory licensing? If this company won't apply to Health Canada to make this drug available, should we exercise our right to compulsory license that drug? Finally, how many times has the Canadian government used compulsory licensing?