Sure. My lens is always what is going to create the greatest commercial opportunity for companies that are inventing, developing, and patenting their technologies here. An indigenous company developing a therapeutic here needs to have the longest period of market exclusivity they can possibly have in order to recoup their costs.
The justification for requests for patent term extension lies in their ability to reap the commercial rewards of that period of market exclusivity. Time that's spent in the regulatory process eats away at that period of market exclusivity and puts companies at a competitive disadvantage if they're looking to market in Canada, if they're trying to partner or license a technology. A potential partner is looking at the market potential of that technology and calculating how many years of market exclusivity they'll have in Canada for that technology. If that technology spends a lot of time in the regulatory process, then the number of years available to recoup those costs is reduced. With market term extension, that time is recaptured.