I would like to now address my questions to Professor Morgan. If there is time, I will also give Ms. Grover an opportunity to respond.
Professor Morgan, in your opinion, do you think drug companies are using patient advocacy groups basically to do the lobbying for them in order to further their own business interests, and by refusing to put an application before Health Canada for their drug Trikafta, are they not holding sick Canadians with cystic fibrosis hostage to their demands?
What are pharmaceutical companies really afraid of? It might be because these changes.... I've heard they're really afraid that these changes to the PMPRB would basically allow other jurisdictions to figure out the actual price our country was paying for drugs, and what purchasers were paying in our country.
This is a jealously guarded secret. As you've said previously, they don't want countries to know what other countries and other jurisdictions, other buyers, are paying for their drugs. With these changes to the PMPRB, it would allow HTA and pharmacoeconomics in the PMPRB to set a maximum price based on HTA and a maximum QALY saved.
When PMPRB was looking at the actual price that it would allow for a drug, this would allow other countries to figure out the price that Canada and purchasers in Canada were paying for the drug.