Mr. Speaker, I too would like to thank and congratulate our colleague who sat with us on the Standing Committee on Health, for her excellent initiative, in principle.
I believe it would have been advisable for our colleague to have had more to say on how all this would operate. I think we have no great difficulty in subscribing to the principle of providing the maximum information on the effects of drugs, particularly prescription drugs, but this could also apply to over-the-counter medicines.
As for knowing how this is going to be put into practice, we must admit that our colleague was not too forthcoming with details.
For example, Canada has a system of mandatory reporting of certain diseases. Taking AIDS as my example, when someone dies in hospital of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, the health professionals, the physicians, are required to report it. There is a national registry.
This gives the Canadian centre for epidemioliogy an idea of the number of deaths from AIDS, obviously so that they may have some understanding of the face of the epidemic. When they do, they will have a better grasp of the situation.
In the area of concern to us here, we are told that every year, people, apparently some 10,000, die from a drug reaction.
This immediately raises two questions. Does this mean that, by authorizing use of the drug, starting as a new experimental drug that has been approved under the regulations within a known process requiring clinical tests and the provision of monographs, a process that seems to be pretty rigorous, Health Canada has failed in its statutory obligations and allowed a drug to be sold that has harmful effects?
Does this mean that, in prescribing a medication, a health professional, a physician, has improperly assessed the bio-availability and bio-reactivity of the various individuals taking that drug?
This is where it is not easy to draw the line. Would a better information system make it possible to avoid situations like the one described to us by the hon. member for Winnipeg North Centre? Perhaps. But I believe questions need to be asked about the share of the responsibility that lies with Health Canada, the health professionals, and the physicians.
Second, I believe that if we are to analyze or study a motion such as the one before us, we need to situate it in a much broader context. Of course we must investigate the drug certification system, to model it after the system of reportable diseases, but we must also look into the whole issue of drug costs.
In this regard, I agree completely with the previous speaker's comments, and I would like to share some figures on this.
In researching this speech, I reread what was written by the National Forum on Health. Members will remember that the Prime Minister set up the National Forum on Health in 1995. The forum's report was tabled in 1997.
The report reminds us that between 1975 and 1995, drug costs in Canada climbed from $1.1 billion to $9.2 billion. These are the figures available from 1994, so we can expect that the numbers have grown even more since then.
A number of witnesses told us that among the most expensive costs in health care, it is drug-related costs that have gone up the quickest.
It is not unusual to observe that for many governments, whether it be the governments of Quebec, Ontario and likely Manitoba as well, health care spending represents 12, 13, 14 or 15% of their budgets, and in some cases more.
Mr. Speaker, you seem very informed on these issues. According to figures published by the National Forum on Health, we spent on average 12.7% in 1994; that figure is probably much higher today. Would it not be wise to refer to the Standing Committee on Health measures that would enable us to see how we could better control drug costs?
Some time ago, the government of Quebec held a parliamentary commission. The commission, known as the Good Samaritan was made up of a group of doctors. They proposed a certain number of solutions that I would like to share with my colleagues, and study in parliamentary committee.
The balance between brand name drug and generic drug industries is not easily called into question. Before the summer adjournment, we passed a bill from the other place, Bill S-15, a decision by the World Trade Organization whereby Canada has to provide all Canadian patents the same protection, be they on intellectual property, copyright or drugs. That means that Canada has little manoeuvring room to review the Patents Act, since the WTO rendered a decision.
However, could we not approach things in a way that would allow us to make broader use of our generic drugs industry while not losing sight of the fact that each time a new drug comes onto the market, hundreds of millions of dollars are required for research?
The first solution proposed by the Good Samaritan Commission was to recommend to the government of Quebec that it permit, as other provinces do, the expanded sale of generic drugs. The commission considered the abolition of this rule would mean an immediate savings of $45 million annually.
Second, and this ties in with our NDP colleague's concerns, it is public knowledge that physicians prescribe drugs much too generously.
The example was given of antibiotics prescribed for the flu. The commission said that if doctors received better training, we are talking about training in connection with the writing of prescriptions, there could be savings of 10%. The Good Samaritan commission, composed of doctors, estimated that if health professionals, particularly doctors, were given better training, 10% of the $1 billion in drug costs could be saved. This would save the public treasury, in this case the government of Quebec, $100 million.
The commission also talked about prescribing less expensive drugs. One extremely interesting example was given. The commission said that doctors prescribe drugs that are far too expensive because they themselves, as health care professionals, are often unaware of the cost of drugs.
The example of ulcers was given. I hope that I myself will not be too responsible for giving you ulcers, Mr. Speaker, but should anyone in the House have them, three drugs were mentioned: Losec, Acinétidine, and Raniditine.
Losec costs $2.20 a tablet, Raniditine 40 cents a tablet, and Acinétidine nine cents a tablet. These drugs are used for similar therapeutic purposes. If all doctors whose patients had ulcers were to prescribe the least expensive drug, $50 million annually could be saved.
I know that my allotted time is up, but I will conclude by saying that these are issues the Standing Committee on Health should take a serious look at.