Mr. Chair, the hon. member raises a very important issue. In fact, this was one of the first couple of issues that came to my attention when I became minister. We are currently in the process of developing and concluding development of regulations to deal with evergreening. Hopefully we would not need the private member's bill, but if we do I would be happy to take a look at it and tell the hon. member at that time whether or not I support it.
But I do support dealing with the issue of evergreening. It is a serious issue. It is a matter of balance. We want pharmaceutical companies to have drugs approved in this country and to manufacture drugs in this country. We also want to make sure that they do not unnecessarily delay the entry of generics into the market.