Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Christian Blouin. I am the Director of Public Health Policy and Government Relations for Merck Frosst Canada. I am accompanied by my colleague Rob Livingston, Ottawa Director of Merck Frosst, who will serve as a resource person for me during t

Finance committee  Right now, in the public health care system, the vaccine is sold for under $134.95 a dose. It's a three-dose treatment. So we're talking about approximately $405.

Finance committee  We can try to see how much leeway we have from the standpoint of public immunization programs.

Finance committee  You were wondering about the price?

Finance committee  That's a very good question. As a matter of fact, before the National Immunization Strategy was established, Canada looked pretty bad, quite frankly. If you look at the situation in terms of the geographic regions of Canada it was a patchwork. The rich provinces had immunizatio

Finance committee  In fact, when a new vaccine is available, it's a very effective public health measure, and most industrialized countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, most of the countries of Europe as well as Australia, adopt national immunization strategies. Health care is an

Finance committee  For the population to be immunized? The vaccine must be given to at least 85 to 90% of the citizens. Otherwise, we see cases such as in the U.K., where at one point they stopped vaccinating against measles. There was an increase in infections and many deaths. That was just a few

Finance committee  I would be pleased to answer that question. First, we have to be clear and not confuse the two issues. The recommendations and requests we made will ensure that Canadians have access to vaccines to protect their health. Our first request was precisely that the government reconsi

Finance committee  I am not sure that I know the answer; that is why my colleague Rob Livingston is with me today. In fact, all levels of research are important to Merck Frosst in Canada. This is true not only for basic research, for clinical research, but also for social research. It is the same

Finance committee  Absolutely. Thank you for your question. I think for women's health, it's a very important breakthrough. In fact, pap testing many years ago, in the 1940s, was probably the most significant achievement in the prevention of cervical cancer, but even with pap testing, there are s

Finance committee  There's a bunch of studies under way right now, but in terms of the cervical cancer cost annually in Canada, the most conservative number at this stage is about $270 million. This is only direct cost right now. So when you're talking about societal costs and the impact on women's

Finance committee  Absolutely. In fact, I talked about Gardasil, but we launched at the same time, at the end of August, RotaTeq. That is a vaccine for rotavirus, a major cause of gastroenteritis in young kids. About a year from now we will have another breakthrough, a vaccine against shingles. Th

Finance committee  I don't know if that's the exact dollar amount, but one thing that's clear--not only in Canada, not only in Quebec, but around the world--is that world experts fully agree that vaccination and immunization are by far the most cost-effective medical interventions that exist. The o

Finance committee  No. In fact, when I was talking about 80 to 90% of the population, that percentage corresponds to the minimum required number of vaccinated people in the target group. We are talking about a cervical cancer vaccine. And so, at the outset, we have to eliminate half of the populati

Finance committee  We have met with all of the public health committees in Canada, as well as with representatives of the Public Health Agency of Canada, where a committee is currently evaluating the vaccine.