Evidence of meeting #40 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was system.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
The trend with drug benefit companies is to insure at the cost of the generic. What constituents often say is that when they go to have their prescription filled, the generic is not there and they have to buy the brand name pharmaceutical.
My question is whether these brand name pharmaceuticals are taking greater ownership in the generics, then holding back production of the generics so that the brand name pharmaceuticals will have to be bought by the patients.
President, Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association
When patents expire and generics come on the market, I think you would find that in virtually all pharmacies in Canada, the generic would be available to the patient.
I will use an example in the area of cholesterol. A drug called Lipitor came off patent and instead of generic prescriptions for Lipitor increasing as you might expect as the prices came down, the promotion to the medical community was for a different drug, Crestor, and sales of Crestor went up. Patients were often prescribed Crestor, when in the past they might have been prescribed Lipitor. Crestor was still being sold at a very high brand price, and the generic Lipitor was available at a low price. The problem was that Lipitor was not being used properly. Some insurance plans will require that as well. It's called “therapeutic substitution”, to ensure that the best-priced product is available. When the actual product, such as Lipitor, goes generic, I think you will find that pharmacies have it. The problem may be that it's not being prescribed.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
How do our prices for generic pharmaceuticals compare to those of other countries?
President, Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association
The prices in Canada have come down dramatically over the last five years. We are a regulated market at the provincial level.
I'll use Ontario as an example since it's the largest. It used to regulate generics effectively at 63% of the brand name price. That was until 2008. In Ontario now, if you want to be listed on their formulary, you can price your product effectively at 25% or you won't get on.
At the new lower levels, our prices are essentially comparable to prices abroad. In the past when the prices were higher—and this has been shown in studies done by the Competition Bureau and others—much of that money was going to the pharmacy community to support pharmacy services and was being competed away to provide that. We have a very strong pharmacy sector in Canada. Provincial governments have decided to lower generic prices, and in return they are looking at alternate ways of funding the pharmacy community.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
With respect to personalized medicine, which was broached here, where the selection of a particular therapeutic or its dosage is individually tailored for scientific patient populations based on shared genetic characteristics, does your organization see the patentability thereof as another means of evergreening?
President, Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association
If the medication is new, novel, useful, an improvement, we would support the patenting of it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Sweet
Thank you very much, Mr. Keon.
Mr. Keon, did you say that with Crestor and Lipitor, there's no substantive therapeutic difference between the two?
President, Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association
I think they're both in the same therapeutic class. What we found was the sales of Lipitor decreased dramatically and the sales of Crestor increased dramatically after Lipitor went off patent, indicating that there was something happening in the marketplace beyond an improvement in the therapeutic applicability of either product.
Conservative
President, Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association
They're not exact replicas, but they are both in the same therapeutic class.
President, Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association
They're substantially the same. They treat the same illnesses, yes.
President, Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association
They're both statin products.
NDP
Dan Harris NDP Scarborough Southwest, ON
I want to touch on another statement that you made, Ms. Garland, but I don't want you to think that I disagree with everything you said. I don't want to come off as not being very nice.
You spoke about the necessity for an online searchable database for patents. Maybe you could elaborate on why you think that would be useful. Then I'll ask Mr. Dixon if that would be helpful to students at Waterloo, and then ask Mr. Siebrasse if that would help with respect to litigation.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization
An online searchable database, in my view, is just a quick win to help companies that are going through the patent filing process, so that they can keep track of how their application is proceeding through the system and what the deadlines are and so on. It's just an opportunity for us to join the 21st century in terms of access to information over the Internet.
NDP
Vice-President, Research, University of Waterloo, As an Individual
That's fine.
I'm not too sure I understand the question.
NDP
Dan Harris NDP Scarborough Southwest, ON
If we were to have an online searchable database of patents and applications, would it help students at Waterloo who are at the very start of their careers and not familiar with the system? Do you think that approach would help them?
Vice-President, Research, University of Waterloo, As an Individual
Anything that increases the availability of data and allows people to get it in real time and use it is going to be helpful.
NDP
Dan Harris NDP Scarborough Southwest, ON
I think I could use that quote in a lot of areas to do with government.
Mr. Siebrasse?
Professor, Faculty of Law, University of New Brunswick, As an Individual
Yes. I would just repeat that anything that increases the availability of information and increases the ease of searching is good. I'm not sure exactly what the nature of the database we're talking about is, but it's certainly very important to be able to find information on issued patents in particular, but also patents in the process, so that the public can be aware of this information, for example, what's being patented, what they have to watch out for. The more easily this is available the better. Searchability isn't just about Internet access, but about how it's classified. How easy it is to find patents that will affect your business is very important.