When the legislation first came into place and we got all the way down to making regulations, we had some early discussions with the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association. We had some of the generics in, and we figured that we needed a good end-to-end account of how you apply through the various parts of the process, because there are some complications there.
We made a description, along with the person over at the Commissioner of Patents office. We all sat together and figured out how to get from one end to the other. We were called on to do that on a number of occasions.
It still remains complicated whenever you put drugs together with patents. These are two very complicated areas to explain. It has certainly been a big challenge to explain exactly how the whole system works. Usually people have the patience to do it. We sit down together with our colleagues from Industry Canada, and so on.
We don't get to talk very often to our colleagues in other regulatory jurisdictions--for example, in Africa. We have had some occasions to sit down together. I know my health minister has talked to colleagues in Tanzania and Kenya. We've been trying to do some outreach with colleagues who are regulators there, but sometimes the way they communicate or not with their patent office is questionable.
How we all sit and talk together really is the issue. In our departments we try to keep some rapport, but it is complicated.