Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to speak today on this bill. It is important to put it into the context in which we are examining it.
This bill seeks to amend the Patent Act and the Food and Drugs Act (The Jean Chrétien Pledge to Africa). This bill is the result of very strong international determination that prescription drugs that have been the subject of significant and costly research projects should be available to all people in developing countries, the least fortunate on this Earth.
And so we came to discuss this bill originally introduced last fall. As members will recall, the first bill introduced was full of good intentions but during the committee stage it became clear that a great many changes were really needed in the bill.
The initial good will was expressed to the WTO and later shaped by intensive lobbying from non-governmental organizations and all stakeholders wanting humanity to show that, when someone on this planet is in need, an effective and meaningful way can be found to help that person, and that results can be achieved in a short time.
The bill we have before us will enable these countries to cope with problems relating to HIV-AIDS, TB, malaria and other such diseases.
Lastly, this bill is intended to make it possible to supply drugs to developing countries, while respecting the reality of intellectual property. As a result, when it was introduced, we had to listen carefully to everything that witnesses had to say, whether they were research companies working on new drugs, producers of generic drugs, NGOs, or other stakeholders. All of these were interested in seeing the bill get passed, be as functional as possible, and allow the various countries to have access to drugs as promptly as possible.
This was not necessarily an easy task, since the purpose of the exercise was to free the whole matter of supplying drugs to developing countries from international trade regulations. Yet, at the same time, despite the good will of all parties, the companies involved still wanted assurance that the arrangement would be adequate to prevent commercial trading or leaks.
We had to focus on this and ensure that the end product would be an acceptable bill. So there were many amendments, particularly in relation to the first draft in which research companies were given first right of refusal. Proposals were made to replace that.
I believe that the model found in the bill now, while perhaps not perfect, will improve the situation. It will allow greater competition among the companies concerned when there is a product to be supplied. As a result, in the medium term, this will contribute to lower prices for drugs supplied to developing countries under both this bill and the WTO agreement. In the long term, this would lead to the creation of more worthwhile markets for all kinds of products.
As for the work done in committee on this bill, it can be said that all the parties in this House did their best to create the best bill possible. We also heard from many witnesses. Moreover, we allowed enough time for the government to prepare amendments. Some amendments were adopted in committee; others on the table today will not make the bill perfect, but better. There is a clause in the bill stipulating that in three years time the bill should be tabled in the House again and re-examined to look at how it was applied and whether the mechanism established actually helped provide drugs to southern countries.
The fundamental challenge of this bill is to determine whether, in a reasonable period of time, human beings in the poorest countries in the world will benefit from the benefits put in place and the mechanism created for ensuring that drugs are made available.
Amendments were made to the list of drugs. The government's initial bill was missing drugs that should have been part of the list. They are now included in the current bill. Some countries were also missing from the list; this is to ensure that countries that are not WTO members, for instance, and are very poor, are on the list of countries eligible under this agreement. We also worked to ensure greater competition in order for the drugs to be available at a lower cost.
This led to the new version of the bill.
Among the amendments under consideration today in the first group, there are some amendments to ensure security of supply.
Various stakeholders remarked that it is quite proper to implement a process to ensure that developing countries receive a satisfactory supply. However, it is also essential to ensure that smuggling will not develop, with lower cost pharmaceutical products intended for developing countries ending up on North or South American markets or elsewhere in the world through faulty channels. Smuggling already exists in other markets, such as cigarettes.
It would have been very unfortunate, after the positive efforts of all the parties during committee consideration, to end up with a bill that does not ensure adequate supply and, above all, has serious flaws and generates smuggling.
Even today, at report stage, amendments are being proposed to ensure that this bill is as good as it can be.
I believe that we can be proud of the result. We will be among the first countries in the world to have tabled such legislation. To my knowledge, Norway has introduced similar legislation. However, Canada's capacity to produce pharmaceutical products is much greater than Norway's. Consequently, the precedent we are creating is being scrutinized by countries around the world to see if they should adopt such legislation.
It is important too for research companies and the generic drug industry that this service be provided. There has been much criticism of the fact that, in the past, profits have been more important than the need to make pharmaceutical products available. This bill is one way to counter this reality and ensure that, in fact, the efforts made in the past, both by research companies and by the generic drug companies, have a greater impact, through a truly satisfactory mechanism for distributing essential drugs to developing countries.
I think that the speech by my colleague who preceded me and who is from a region of the world that will be able to benefit from the results of our work, says it best of all.
We have before us a bill that all parliamentarians can be proud of. We have an opportunity, and this is not often the case here, to unanimously agree on the objectives of this legislation.
Remember last fall, when this bill was up for second reading. The House was about to prorogue. An effort was made by all the parties in the House to have the bill referred to the committee. Once again, and this has been the case for several weeks or months, we have a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads, because of the possibility of an election call. We made the necessary efforts in committee to ensure that the bill would get to report stage today and possibly to third reading tomorrow, and we hope that it can be quickly sent to the Senate and passed.
Ultimately, people will benefit from the availability of medication. We are not talking about commercial products. We are talking about products that will help save many lives. It is this spirit that should motivate us in passing this legislation. We worked to that end in committee.
I think that, in a way, we are answering a cry from the heart from people living in developing countries in ensuring that drugs can be available more quickly and at a lesser cost, at a very reasonable cost. Let us hope that our work will achieve this result as quickly as possible.
Let us proceed with the amendments this afternoon and with third reading tomorrow, so as to make this legislation effective as quickly as possible to ensure that the people on this planet who have the greatest need for medication can get it, even though they cannot afford it.