Industry committee  We have forced our way into a few meetings this week, yes.

Industry committee  I think I mentioned briefly in my comments that prices of generics now in both Quebec and Ontario are capped at 50% of the equivalent brand, which is already subject to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. So those prices have come down over 25%, and if an up-to-date study

Industry committee  Yes, thank you. The data that we present in our brief come from the government agency, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. Those are not our data; they're data that it reports every year. I think we had provided to the clerk this morning a chart that basically shows that

Industry committee  Yes. It's almost double.

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  We were given no notice. And from talking to the provinces, I believe they were given no notice either.

Industry committee  I would just repeat that the product Lipitor is the largest-selling product in the history of pharmaceuticals. Canada-wide sales are $1.1 billion. In British Columbia, sales would be over $100 million. Delaying a generic for a year or two years adds an extra $50 million a year, i

Industry committee  Thank you. Yes, I mentioned briefly in my comments that we were very disappointed in the changes. You're right, in 2006 the government had taken steps to seal off evergreening, to make it much more difficult to add on patents. And then after the government did that, the Supreme

Industry committee  I have a couple of comments on the regulatory situation on patents in Canada. In October 2006 regulatory changes were made to the patented medicine notice of compliance regulations to stop the practice of evergreening of drug patents by brand name companies. We applauded the gov

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. On behalf of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association and our member companies, I thank you for inviting us to appear during your study of Canadian science and technology. The CGPA is the national association representing the generic drug industry in

Industry committee  I was just going to say, in line with what Mr. McTeague said, again, the brand-name companies own these medicines, they have the patents, now they can go to any country they want and offer the product at any price. Why did the developing countries want the system under the WTO? W

Industry committee  That is part of the problem. The other issue has been that in India they have not faced patents, so they were able to go ahead and make a product. And again, you've heard the difficulties that Apotex had in getting through the regulatory and legal requirements in Canada. They don

Industry committee  I would agree 100%; I think it is important that the legislation operate. Again, I would say the brand-name companies do not need this legislation. If they want to donate medicines, they can do so now without this legislation. This legislation is intended to generate competitio

Industry committee  As Mr. Kay mentioned, Apotex has already poured $2 million into a pilot project. If this project works well, I'm confident other companies will be ready to move forward with the legislation.

Industry committee  I think you're absolutely right, Mr. Shipley. India has been called the pharmacy for the poor world because it didn't have patents. Starting in 2005, it now does have patents. If in the future we find, as Jack said, that India and Indian companies are not able to produce these pr