Health committee  I'd like to say to Mr. Thériault that some key partners are missing from that roundtable, and I mean the provinces.

Health committee  I can answer that. Do you want to go ahead, Paul, on this one?

Health committee  Okay. Actually, Mr. Van Bynen, I applaud the investment that the Canadian government has made recently in the sector. My point today is that the ecosystem is much larger than just drug prices. It's about much more than that. We don't have a Canadian life sciences strategy right now.

Health committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. d'Entremont. Investments come from a number of sectors. At BIOQuébec, our members are not large pharmaceutical companies. They are biotechnology companies that do clinical and preclinical studies. They are part of the ecosystem. However, the ecosystem is very different from what it was 10 years, 15 years, 20 years ago.

Health committee  I'll tell you what I think about it and I'm also going to ask Mr. Lévesque to comment and tell us what he would do, as the head of a company, if he had to make decisions about drugs that he was working on. Market access is a key factor in the innovation chain. When you restrict that access, in Canada, unfortunately it's sure to have a negative impact on the ecosystem.

Health committee  I'm assuming that question is for me?

Health committee  In our opinion, the current reform clearly seems to have been designed in a vacuum, whereas our ecosystem works horizontally. The ecosystem is a chain of innovation from research in academia to, hopefully, the commercialization of new drugs. Along that chain, there are many players, including us, the biotech companies, and the clinical and preclinical research organizations.

Health committee  Thank you. As long as you stop the clock for these six minutes, I'm going to be fine. Regulating drug prices is the responsibility of the provinces, which are in charge of health care and, in Quebec, a public drug insurance program. In our opinion, there are already ways to monitor prices.

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, thank you for welcoming us and allowing us to participate in this important and strategic discussion. My name is Anie Perrault, and I am the chief executive officer of BIOQuébec. BIOQuébec is an industry association that represents Quebec‑based companies.