Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And thank you, folks, for coming.
I'll go to the pharmaceutical and generic drug industry as well, because it is a huge issue. If your figures are anywhere close, in our public health care system it would be a huge additional cost.
I do find it shocking that the government itself has not done any independent net benefit analysis of both your industries. In fact, the chief negotiator told us when he was here that while some internal analysis has been done on some issues, no specific analysis has been done on pharmaceuticals costs. I think the government is falling down in that regard.
I've met with the pharmaceutical industry, and your industry, and to be quite honest, I don't know who to believe. You've said that extending patent protection does not increase investment. Well, the pharmaceutical industry tells me it does. They say there is more investment as a result. They say that new drugs are found that will improve health and reduce health care costs.
Can you back up your allegation? Do you have any data you can leave with the committee that will back up your line of thought that extending patent protection does not increase investment on the pharmaceutical side?