Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to speak after my hon. colleague from Jonquière who, as we know, has a profound interest in consumers and people.
I was saying to my colleague, the hon. member for Lac-Saint-Jean—Saguenay, who has been, in our party and to some extent in this parliament, a leader as far as the globalization issue is concerned, that if we were looking for an example of globalization affecting the national sovereignty of a state, we could take this debate.
Let me explain. Canada signed a number of World Trade Organization, WTO, agreements, including one on the protection of intellectual property rights and trade. As we can understand, patents are linked to intellectual property. A patent is what somebody who has developed an invention applies for in order to have exclusivity for a number of years.
About a year ago, the WTO handed down a ruling concerning Canadian patents. This ruling followed a challenge by the United States about some form of unfair competition. The mechanisms in place within the WTO have played their role. There are appeal mechanisms.
There are many references to these in the bill. My hon. colleague from Jonquière probably mentioned it already. The bill refers to the dispute settlement body, or DSB, of the WTO.
The dispute settlement body gave a ruling that was not in Canada's favour. Two pieces of legislation were passed, Bill C-22 and another law we reviewed more recently, four years ago. The Canadian Patent Act provides for a five year review.
There are two types of patents. The patents that existed prior to 1986 are protected for 17 years. Those that date from after 1986 are protected for 20 years, under the latest legislation we have passed. I was a member of the committee reviewing the law, with the member for Témiscamingue, whose unfailing devotion to the brand name drug industry is well known.
The ruling was given. It came out that there are two types of patent in Canada: those protected for 17 years and those protected for 20 years. This was seen to be inconsistent with a specific treaty signed under the WTO, the agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights.
Arbitration followed, with the Americans calling for binding arbitration. I hope the government House leader is listening, because I read the entire defence produced by the Government of Canada. There was doubt as to Canada's ability to produce its legislation within a year, because it said it was not sure of having a parliamentary majority.
That made me laugh. I told myself “We are now giving the opposition a power that it is usually not entitled to in other circumstances”. Anyway, the binding arbitration requested and obtained by the United States forces Canada to change the Canadian legislation by next August. The government has no other choice but to change the legislation.
As the member for Lac-Saint-Jean said, that is when globalization is impacting on us as parliamentarians. We have not freely decided to change the legislation, quite the opposite. When Canada set up the five year revision of the Patent Act in the industry committee, it had not chosen to make such a change. We have to recognize that globalization curtails parliamentary sovereignty.
There are of course settlement mechanisms. In this case we lost, but in others we win, and I accept that. I am not questioning the free trade agreement. That is not the point at all, but we have to understand the reality. The member for Lac-Saint-Jean raised the issue of MPs' privileges in the context of globalization. I am sure that when he addresses the issue in the future, he will give the example of the Patent Act.
I understand fully the whole issue of the research on brand name drugs as far as Quebec is concerned. There are two main types of research being conducted on drugs. There is research on brand name drugs. It involves cycles of up to five or ten years. The researchers working on brand name drugs were telling us that for each drug produced, marketed and authorized by Health Canada, the research cycle can cost up to $170 million. Quebec excels in the area of brand name drugs. It is one of its industrial clusters.
Another facet of this reality, if I can call it that, is the research on generic drugs, that part of research which takes the molecule once it exists and copies it according to very specific rules.
I hope that in the coming years we as parliamentarians will have a debate on the cost of drugs. I support wholeheartedly the principle of a research infrastructure for brand name drugs. I understand that when one invests $170 or $200 million, one expects a return on that investment; it is normal. However, I hope that we will also take the consumer into account.
In the future, it will not suffice to ask ourselves as parliamentarians if we have an adequate research infrastructure. Whether or not the research infrastructure is adequate, if the drugs are not available to the consumers, we ought to be concerned and raise the questions.
This morning, I met with representatives of the generic drug industry. People know how I am. When people ask for a meeting, I always say yes. That is the way I am. I think parliamentarians should make themselves available. Therefore this morning I had the pleasure of meeting representatives of the generic drugs industry.
I told them “This is not the right time to raise this issue. I believe that there must be a debate on the cost of drugs and that we must ask ourselves if we did not go too far in the protection provided to patent drugs. What should we do about generic drugs, notably with respect to the rules of procedural equity?” In this regard, the supreme court has handed down some rulings.
Once again, the Bloc Quebecois agrees with the need to set up a strong research infrastructure and to make patent drugs one of Quebec's major industrial clusters. Our position on this remains unchanged.
However, in the next few years we will also have to think about access to drugs. When I met the representatives of the generic drug industry, I told them “You would be making a serious strategic mistake if you raised the issue of the regulatory framework authorizing a notice of compliance”. That is not the way to go.
With a notice of compliance, as we know, when an industry makes the slightest allegation of patent infringement, we can interrupt the process for 24 months, during which the generic drug industry cannot sell the drug.
However, the issue here is a WTO ruling. In other words, even if there were not, in Canada, a debate between generic drugs and patent drugs, Bill S-17 would still be before us, because the WTO has handed down a ruling. This is binding arbitration, and in fact Canada has until August 2001 to raise these issues.
As parliamentarians, we have missed an opportunity to raise an important issue. When the national forum on health tabled its report in 1997, it was already recommending dealing with the issue of access to drugs. As we speak, six provinces have created working groups on the reorganization of the health care system.
Of course, wherever we are—the NDP whip knows this—all the provinces are debating the reorganization of health care. This is understandable. This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are no longer talking about the old but the very old.
Let us take the hon. member for Jonquière as an example. She does not smoke, she does not drink, she takes care of her health. If everything goes well in her life, if she does not have too much stress because of her colleagues, she has an excellent chance of living until the age of 100. This is the reality. Today, it is not uncommon in our communities for people to live to be quite old, and women live longer than men.
Why do women live longer than men? Because women are more in touch with their emotions. Women are more balanced when it comes to life and life's great values. Mr. Speaker, women will live longer than men, and I know you will personally be glad for this.
We have missed an opportunity that we will have to create in the next years, to deal with access to drugs. What services or range of services do we want to provide to our fellow citizens? How will we organize our health system? I sometimes have the opportunity to meet with medical association representatives and hospital directors, and I wonder if we are all aware of which budget item uses up most of the hospitals' resources. It is drugs. This is understandable. People live longer, but they also live longer with disabilities. People can be on medication for longer periods of time than ever before.
Because of this, a question arises: do we want to stay with the same process of covered drug lists that we have at present, which are such a drain on government budgets, particularly provincial governments? After all, they are the ones who have to reimburse drug costs.
Let me give members some statistics to think about. Out of 72 new drugs approved by the Quebec government last year, more than 50 were brand name drugs. By comparison, I think Ontario authorized some 40 new drugs. The number is approximate and just gives an idea of what is involved. Only ten were brand name drugs. Ontario, our next door neighbour, for the same available drugs, chose to approve fewer brand name drugs.
Of course, this raises questions. Again, the research infrastructure is important. Why would a pharmaceutical company do research at a cost of maybe $175 million if it is copied by a competitor? Conversely, if brand name drugs are so costly that whole segments of the population cannot afford them, there is also a problem.
We see the balance that is needed and the debate that is coming. However, Bill S-17 is not what should trigger the debate.
At the Standing Committee on Health, we are currently examining the whole issue of human artificial reproduction technologies. Once this debate is over in January 2002, however, I myself may table a motion on the whole issue of access to drugs. I think this issue is extremely important for us, as parliamentarians.
I would be tempted to stop here to let my colleagues debate the issue, but let me say once again that this bill points to the significant dilemma whereby the sovereignty of national states is eroded. It is the dilemma that arises when an organization, a multinational forum, has handed down a ruling that impacts on our capacity as parliamentarians to make decisions. In the end, this dilemma obviously impacts on the industry and then on consumers.
Bill S-17, as such, will not fundamentally change anything for the industry. I will give a few statistics the Minister of Industry has so kindly made available, knowing that hon. members are just dying to have such information. To give us some idea of the situation, as of January 2001, the number of patents issued under the old act was 138,000. Of that total, some 53,500 were protected for less than 20 years. Another 85,300 had 20 year protection under the latest provisions of the legislation we passed.
According to the people at Health Canada, the World Trade Organization ruling will not have any lasting effects on drug costs. The impact of the ruling over the next eight years—understanding that patents without the 20 year protection will end in 2009—will be minimal.
According to departmental officials, this will be the equivalent in quantitative terms of less than 1% of one year's drug sales. There is not, therefore, any risk and we must keep telling the public they will continue to have access to affordable drugs according to the letter of Bill S-17.
I would like my colleagues to know that one of the things that makes our drug licensing system original is the fact that we have created a regulatory body called the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. Since the Progressive Conservatives brought in the Patent Act, this regulatory body has been in place to monitor the pricing structure of drugs.
A series of criteria is taken into account, and there is a series of drugs, drug A, B or C. There is a controversy. Some, like the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, in its eighth report released in 1995, contend that, of the new drugs introduced onto the market, only 2.7% really have any new therapeutic value.
That said, the average cost of drugs must still be kept in mind. Drugs are too expensive—we agree on this—and we must put the consumer at the heart of our concerns. Yet when we compare ourselves with the United States, and that is what the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board found, the cost of patented medicines in Canada is, on average, 40% lower than in the United States.
A formula of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board has given us an advantage we may rightly be proud of. Despite the fact that a debate needs to be held on access to drugs, still with the consumer at the heart of our concerns, when we compare ourselves with a country like the United States—the comparison is relevant, because we are North Americans and there are a number of subsidiaries in Canada, whose head offices are of course in the United states—the cost of drugs is 40% lower here than it is in the U.S.
I would stop there, hoping that the debate is held and that we may always keep the best interest of consumers in mind and the need for Quebec, whose economic dynamism is a matter of record, to hold on to what it has done for a research infrastructure in connection with brand name drugs.