Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the witnesses.
As we have limited time, I'll get right into a letter that Minister Fast received from the Alzheimer's Society, indicating that
Recent stats available on Alzheimer's disease speak to the urgent need to increase support for research and development of new medicines. Today, 1 in 11 Canadians over the age of 65 currently has Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia.
I know it's a serious issue. I represent one of the largest ridings in the Okanagan—my colleague, Mr. Albas, and I—that has aging demographics. It's a serious issue across Canada.
The letter goes on:
Recent new developments in Alzheimer research are encouraging but still much more needs to be done.
As a patient group and key stakeholder in Canada's life sciences sector, we believe that improving intellectual property standards for medicines in the Canada–EU CETA negotiations represents an exciting opportunity for the Harper Government to position Canada as a world leader in advanced medical research and a magnet for global investments to develop cutting-edge treatments and cures.
My question would be for you folks, whoever wants to answer it. You indicated that overall, as a percentage of sales, pharmaceutical R and D dollars have actually decreased. They indicate they've invested $1.5 billion in 2010. I was just wondering if you have a chart or some past history of the percentage of sales you could provide to the committee later, if you don't have that available today.
How, as a generic industry, would you say we can get more innovation, research, and development put into the serious issue of Alzheimer's research?