Health committee  No, I have not drafted medical device...this is only in the federal sphere in Canada, and I have not done anything in that sphere. Health Canada has not asked me to draft any of its legislation in this area. There are other jurisdictions. We'd have to look outside of Canada to t

Health committee  Yes. In my view, progressive licensing means reducing the bar.

Health committee  I agree with that last comment. Also, an independent board for approvals could be a good idea. There's nothing wrong with a department doing it as long as the department acts independently and in the best interests, perhaps as legislatively required. Your last question was on

Health committee  Yes, that's correct.

Health committee  It's a difficult question for me to answer. It's not an area of my particular expertise. If you're speaking of the responsibility of physicians to a patient and not industry or Health Canada, my understanding is that their obligation is to take reasonable care to protect the hea

Health committee  That I would perhaps defer to a physician and their code of conduct. I would speak to mandatory reporting from industry, because there is at least some obligation on industry to report now, although I believe it's only in a very serious event. But I believe the physician should

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  Thank you. I'm not aware of the study, but I'm aware of the original problem with the drug. I sympathize with the issue. If you alarm people, they'll swing in an opposite direction, and they may do things that are adverse to their health interests. In my view, the problem is a

Health committee  I won't be able to comment on the over-the-counter products because I have no expertise in that, but I do want to compliment you on the question itself because it shows that the whole medical system has to be treated as a system in a holistic way. So if you have people with no ac

Health committee  Thank you. The first question was on the legislative requirement. Perhaps it's because I'm a legislative lawyer and I draft legislation, but I believe legislation is generally a good thing, and yes, it's true, I believe for effective post-market surveillance you need legislation

Health committee  Thank you. First, the portion of the bill you mentioned, read out, I believe is the precautionary principle, which was developed at the Rio summit on environmental matters, which is that you must take action even in cases of scientific uncertainty. I believe that's what it is,

Health committee  I'll be optimistic on that interpretation.

Health committee  The other thing the bill should deal with, I believe, is—besides the things I mentioned—basically mandatory compulsory obligations on either officials or industry to do something. So rather than just having everything discretionary—people may do this or may do that—things should

Health committee  I apologize for any misapprehension. I believe it is well known what drugs are on the market. I didn't mean to imply that no one knows what drugs are on the market. There could be illegal drugs on the market, but generally speaking, it's well known what drugs are on the market. W

Health committee  That is possibly a solution. It might avoid the problem now, that once Health Canada approves a drug it's very difficult to admit they made a mistake. At least two-thirds of their funding comes from industry, so it's difficult to criticize the people who are paying the budget. So