Health committee  Actually, Mr. Thériault, everything wasn't going well. I think Ms. Bourassa Forcier resigned because the other members of the board didn't agree with her willingness to give in to the minister's request. I think it's more—

Health committee  Yes, I would consider that unusual. As I said in my opening remarks, I've met on multiple occasions with all previous ministers to brief them on guidelines reform—some ministers three, four, five or six times. I made multiple attempts to obtain a briefing with the minister or h

Health committee  Well, typically we don't initiate it. Usually it comes to us via the deputy minister's office, often at the request of the minister's office. In this instance, since no such attempts were forthcoming, I reached out myself through text to the chief of staff, emails to the chief

Health committee  I'm sorry; I don't understand you.

Health committee  Certainly my staff and the board were aware of the efforts we were making to arrange a meeting, if that's what you mean. In terms of the channels we used to seek out a meeting, as I said, they were texts, emails, phone calls, etc. I'm not sure if I'm answering your question. I

Health committee  One could argue that texting is a more personal channel of communication, and I did use that at one point with the chief of staff. As I said, I didn't get a response to it. I followed up by email and I did get a response. I made an offer of a briefing and was told that they'd g

Health committee  I suspect that I won't follow Professor Herder's example in that regard. I may need a little more time. Good morning. Thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee today. I have been the executive director of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, or PMPRB, s

Health committee  I think that my testimony today is pretty clear: we think that the data from research does not support some of the claims being made. It's as if the stakeholders were making unfounded statements and are asking us to prove the opposite. To our mind, there is no link between the pr

Health committee  No, we have not analyzed the impact on life sciences. However, we have done an analysis on prices, and we believe there will be no impact, as no data....

Health committee  That depends on the country. Are you talking about Canada or—

Health committee  I don't have that number at my fingertips, but it's a considerable amount. Mariana Mazzucato, an economist, does a lot of work in this area. I can certainly get back to you with that. For example, in the U.S. Trikafta was developed on the basis of quite a bit of funding from th

Health committee  If I were omniscient and omnipotent, I would do as the government committed to do a few years back and pursue the establishment of a national drug agency. I think that is the single most well-substantiated complaint about penetrating the Canadian market, that it's like a relay ra

Health committee  That's a really good question. As I said, that's what patient groups were threatening to do in the U.K. and Switzerland, and that's kind of what brought Vertex back to the table. That's my understanding. There are a number of provisions in our Patent Act that allow for compulso

Health committee  That's my personal take on the situation. I shouldn't say that; it's more than personal. The data supports the conclusion that companies tend to focus their R and D efforts, resources and investment in proximity to their international headquarters.

Health committee  We have a number of sort of motherhood, seminal policy documents out there that I think I would refer you to. It's a big question with a long answer, so I think I would refer you, first and foremost, to our 2015-18 strategic plan. It really sets out exactly what you're talking ab