moved for leave to introduce Bill C-248, an act to amend the Patent Act.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to extend my appreciate to my colleague, the member for Winnipeg North Centre, for seconding this very important bill.
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 to the manufacture and sale of medicines after the original patentee has had the medicine approved for marketing for four years.
It also states 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 a licence if a patentee has been unusually delayed in comercializing the medicine.
In essence, this bill will reduce prescription drug costs to Canadians, create more jobs for Canadians, provide competition from Canadian generic drug manufacturers and reduce the rising cost pressure high drug costs have created in our health care system.
The bill addresses Bill C-91, the Drug Patent Act, which has caused prescription drugs to skyrocket in costs. It has affected our medical care system by driving up the cost of prescription and hospital drugs and other drugs to individual users.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)