I have a couple of comments on the regulatory situation on patents in Canada.
In October 2006 regulatory changes were made to the patented medicine notice of compliance regulations to stop the practice of evergreening of drug patents by brand name companies. We applauded the government for those changes. These tactics had unfairly kept generic competition off the market and forced Canadians to pay monopoly prices. In our brief we indicate other areas where we had problems with those changes, particularly in regard to data exclusivity.
I would like to mention, in closing, that following those changes in October 2006, very recently the Government of Canada published proposed further amendments to the regulations in the Canada Gazette, part 1, on April 26 of this year. Those regulation changes would reopen the loopholes to allow brand name companies to abuse the patent system to unfairly delay generic competition.
We're urging the government to withdraw those proposed amendments. The government has allowed only 15 days for public comment. The deadline is fast approaching. We would ask this committee for its urgent support in also opposing those amendments.
Thank you.