Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning to everyone.
My name is Mark Ferdinand. I am the vice-president of policy and research at Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies, otherwise known as Rx & D.
I have two modest goals to share with you today: first, to present to you the findings of our latest report--entitled “The Rx&D International Report on Access to Medicines”, otherwise known as the IRAM report--to really illustrate the differences that exist between Canadians' access to mental health drugs, including drugs related to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's; and second, to provide you with some recommendations that we hope would also allow us to incentivize further private sector research, generally related to pharmaceutical research, but specifically in the area that Dr. Gauthier spoke of a little bit earlier.
You all know very well that neurological and mental illnesses indirectly affect all Canadian men and women, whether those afflicted are acquaintances, members of the family, friends or colleagues.
Today, half a million Canadians are living with Alzheimer's disease or suffering from dementia. In the course of one generation, that figure could double and there could be one million affected people throughout the country.
We are well aware of the reality patients and their families must grapple with on a daily basis. That is precisely what motivates our industry to do what it does.
Canadians expect the best, and we think we have the best health care system in the world. However, findings from our most recent international report on access to medicines, undertaken by Wyatt Health Management—this time it's the fourth annual report—raise questions about the quality of Canada's health care system, in particular demonstrating that despite recent advances in care, Canada still lags far behind other developed countries in terms of access to new medicines.
Our IRAM report examines the public reimbursement of new innovative medicines and patient access to those medicines not only within Canadian public drug plans but 28 other OECD countries, including Scotland.
Our report findings illustrate the pressing need to provide appropriate choice and care for patients, particularly in the area of mental health and neurological diseases.
During my talk this morning, I will not actually be talking about early diagnosis and prevention, and the research that certainly could be done in that space. We believe there is still some room for improvement in that space, but I will be talking to you specifically about the treatment options that exist out there in the world today.
It's a wake-up call, really, for our country's leaders and for Canadians to understand how public health plans are performing vis-à-vis patient needs when we look at how Canada's health care system and treatment experience compare with access to life-saving medicines and quality of care for patients in other countries.
The overall findings of our report show that Canadians who rely solely on public health plans or public drug plans—senior citizens, low-income individuals, families—do not have the same access to new medicines as citizens in 28 other OECD countries, plus Scotland.
Suprisingly, these people do not benefit from the progress that has been made in medicine over the past five or six years.