Hello, my name is Philippe Hébert and I am the director of sales and marketing, in the pharmaceuticals division of Covidien Canada. I would like to thank the committee for its invitation.
Covidien is a health products company with a worldwide presence. The company supplies technetium-99m generators all over the world. In Canada we employ about 500 people in all fields of healthcare and medical products.
In Europe we have a molybdenum extraction facility in the town of Petten, which extracts molybdenum from reactors in Europe. We also have an operations centre there to produce technetium-99m generators. The other centre that supplies Canada and North America is the fabrication centre in Maryland Heights, in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. All clients in Canada are served from that centre.
Covidien traces its roots in this field to the Mallinckrodt company, established over 160 years ago, with headquarters in the St. Louis area. We have continued this heritage. In Canada for the past three years, we have made considerable investments in order to play a more active role in supplying and distributing medical isotopes in the Canadian market.
As you probably already know, there are only two manufacturers of technetium-99m generators in North America. We are one of them. For the past three years our purpose has been to offer Canadian centres a more diversified supply that reduces the risks of supply chain breakdowns that have unfortunately been affecting the medical field. We have had considerable success in becoming an alternate source of supply in the Canada's western and Atlantic provinces. That is why, if you look at the centres in these regions, you will see that the impact of the Chalk River reactor repair process is very limited. That is because of our ability to prove technetium-99m and molybdenum from alternative sources.
I would like to explain briefly how we have been operating since the repairs to the Chalk River reactor began. As a global organization, Covidien has concentrated on supplying its customers. We have contracts with our customers. These contracts are usually for the long term, of at least one year. Our goal is always to ensure that our clients have the best possible supply. Since the repairs to the Chalk River reactor began, we have also established a process to inform the market when additional production is available. We have made a special effort to supply Canada with additional production of technetium-99m generators that can be offered to centres that are not our usual customers here. Such additional production can vary from week to week, but some weeks we have been able to offer 600 curies. To give you an idea of scale, 600 curies is probably one third of the Canadian market's needs. Some weeks, much less is available; other weeks, it is just enough to satisfy our Canadian customers' needs.
Since the beginning, we have made a very determined effort to inform the market of this availability. We have published a calendar that informs the Canadian centres about what supplies we expect to have available two or three months in advance. I will stop here and turn it over to my colleague, Mr. Stephen Littlejohn.