Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And thank you, Mr. Thériault.
Dr. Lexchin, I'm just going to lay bare this issue with the PMPRB. On the one side, you have pharmaceutical companies and patient groups who are arguing that the PMPRB reforms will be bad for Canadians and bad for Canada. They will reduce clinical trials. They will hold up the introduction of innovative medicines to our market, etc.
On the other side, you have those who say these are necessary reforms that will lower the cost of drugs in Canada. They will increase transparency in the pricing process. Simply, this is yet another example of pharmaceutical companies essentially blackmailing Canadians and a lot of vulnerable patients by threatening to withhold drugs to Canadians as a means of trying to influence Canadian pharmaceutical policy. In fact, a good example of that is Trikafta. The cystic fibrosis community is desperately in need of this very effective drug, and the company that makes it has not even applied to Health Canada for approval.
What's your sense of this? Where you come down on this issue?