I can speak to that.
Our central recommendation, which I think would help answer your question, and it's something that Ms. Perkins has already mentioned, is to simplify this process by letting the generic manufacturer here in Canada get one compulsory licence at the beginning of the process, before there are any particular contracts negotiated with any particular country or countries. With that legal authorization in hand, the generic manufacturer can then bid through transparent international tendering processes that many developing countries will have. They can negotiate with multiple developing countries on the list of eligible countries and achieve a certain degree of economy of scale, because they can actually negotiate larger-sized contracts, which means they can negotiate with suppliers of active pharmaceutical ingredients to get the prices of producing the pill down even further, and they will not be required to go through the process every single time, for every single drug order from each particular country.
So it's a simple process, and all that would be required is that they would then periodically pay royalties based on the formula that is already found in the legislation, which is actually the single best feature of the Canadian regime. The Canadian regime is not all bad. The royalty provisions for calculating the royalties that are payable is actually, I think, a very good model for the world. It's unfortunate that few other jurisdictions have copied that particular provision. But that would be a much simpler way of doing it, in our view.
To follow up on the question that was posed before about TRIPS compliance and to reiterate what Ms. Perkins has said, in fact it would be consistent with Canada's obligations as a WTO member to legislate that kind of process. It would be a different approach from what is currently in the regime and different from what the 2003 WTO decision contemplates, but that doesn't mean that what that decision contemplates is the only game in town. In fact, that decision said, and WTO members said specifically in that decision, that it was without prejudice to the other kinds of flexibilities that countries have under the patent rules of the WTO.
One of those flexibilities that have not yet been explored, but could be by Canada, is to define limited exceptions to patent rights here in Canada that would permit the kind of process that I've just outlined. It would give you the licence at the beginning, and then let you negotiate the contracts and pay the royalties on an ongoing basis.