moved for leave to introduce Bill C-311, an act to amend to amend the Patent Act.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce a bill entitled an act to amend the Patent Act. The bill will limit the life of patents for medicines to 17 years and allow for compulsory licences to be granted for the manufacture and sale of medicines after the original patentee has had the medicine approved for marketing for four years.
It also takes into account that the royalty rate is to take into account the amount of medical research carried out in Canada by the applicant and the patentee. There is a provision for refusal or deferral of licence if a patentee has been unusually delayed in commercializing a medicine.
In essence the bill addresses Bill C-91, which has caused prescription drugs to skyrocket in costs. It has affected our medical care system by driving up costs of hospital prescription drugs and
other drugs as well as to individual users. This will allow fairer competition with respect to prescription drugs in the marketplace.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed.)