Mr. Speaker, the government recognizes the devastating impact of diseases like HIV-AIDS in less developed countries. Through agencies like CIDA, the government is engaged in a long term comprehensive approach to fighting this disease in the developing world.
Canada's access to medicines regime is one part of this effort. It enables Canadian generic drug manufacturers to apply to the Commissioner of Patents for authorization to manufacture and export lower priced versions of patented pharmaceutical products, including anti-retrovirals to treat HIV-AIDS, to developing countries in Africa and elsewhere that are unable to manufacture their own.
As the member may know, Canada's access to medicines regime implements the August 2003 decision of the World Trade Organization, WTO, which waived certain intellectual property obligations in the agreement on trade related aspects of intellectual property rights, TRIPS, and gave countries with pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, like Canada, the ability to override a patent holder's rights and authorize a third party to manufacture and export less expensive versions of patented medicines to developing countries with little or no such capacity.
In creating this legislation, Canada faced the challenge of developing an unprecedented compulsory licensing for export regime that facilitated access to medicines for developing countries, while respecting relevant international trade obligations and maintaining the integrity of the domestic patent regime.
Our government is committed to ensuring that Canada's access to medicines regime meets its humanitarian and development objectives, which is why the statutorily mandated review of the regime was accelerated with the release of a consultation paper on November 24, 2006. The early timing of the review was prompted by the fact that no drugs had yet been exported to developing countries, either under our regime or under any of the similar regimes in other developed countries that have implemented the WTO decision.
The purpose of this paper is to focus public dialogue on how Canada's access to medicines regime might better deliver on Canada's commitment without derogating from existing international trade obligations, while continuing to foster pharmaceutical innovation in Canada.
The consultation paper sought public input by providing a brief description of the regime and including a non-exhaustive list of questions on its key features, such as the scope of drugs that should be eligible for export and what countries should be eligible to import them.
During the 60 day period following the release of the paper, Industry Canada and Health Canada received approximately 30 submissions, mainly from members of the pharmaceutical industry, non-governmental organizations, academia and parliamentarians. As matters stand, all of the submissions are being carefully studied and have been posted online to ensure this process works in an open and transparent manner.
In the interim, the government is pursuing every opportunity to raise awareness and uptake of the regime in the developing world, including sponsoring and participating in a recent NGO organized workshop where representatives from various developing countries provided input on the obstacles they face in availing themselves of the WTO decision.
The member may also know that the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology recently undertook a parallel study of the effectiveness of the legislation. Earlier this month the committee held three days of hearings on the regime, with appearances from government officials, the pharmaceutical industry and various non-governmental organizations.
In addition to supporting this process, the government has continued to work on completing its statutory review of the regime. Following completion of this review, the Minister of Industry will table a report in both houses of Parliament, as required by the Patent Act. This report will reflect public input on the discussion paper, as well as the information provided by developing countries at the NGO organized workshop.
The review of Canada's access to medicines regime coincides with other government efforts to improve access to medicines in the developing world. Most recently, on March 19, 2007, the Minister of Finance announced a new tax incentive in the federal budget that will encourage Canadian pharmaceutical manufacturers to donate even greater amounts of needed drugs for developing and least developed countries, including for HIV-AIDS.
In addition, on February 20, 2007--