Ladies and gentlemen, we will start our meeting, which is the 53rd meeting of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), this is the first meeting of our study of Canada's access to medicines regime.
Welcome to everyone.
Before we get to the witnesses, in my best French,
I'd like to welcome Ms. Brunelle, the Member for Trois-Rivières, who is joining this committee following the departure of Mr. Paul Crête.
Thank you.
We will miss Monsieur Crête. He was an excellent member of the committee. We welcome Madame Brunelle. We know she will do an excellent job as well.
We will go right to the orders of the day. We have four departments and five witnesses with us.
First of all, from the Department of Health, we have Mr. David Lee, director, Office of Patented Medicines and Liaison, Therapeutic Products Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch. Welcome, Mr. Lee.
We have two individuals from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. We have Mr. Douglas George, director, Intellectual Property, Information and Technology Trade Policy Division; secondly, we have Mr. Robert Fry, senior departmental coordinator, Pandemic Preparedness, Human Security and Human Rights Bureau.
The third department we have is the Canadian International Development Agency. We have Mr. Christopher Armstrong, team leader, HIV/AIDS.
From the fourth department, the Department of Industry, we have Mr. Douglas Clark, director, Patent Policy.
We will start with the Department of Industry. We will then go to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Then we will go to the Department of Health. Finally, we'll go to CIDA. It's my understanding that this agreement has been worked out.
We'll have a six-minute opening statement from each department. Mr. Clark, we'll start with you.