Health committee  That's a discussion that would have to happen with the pharmacy owners, but it's a discussion that we can entertain with some of the stakeholders within our community.

Health committee  Thank you for the question. We are exploring a number of options for helping these people. We are working with the provinces and payers, and we're having discussions within the profession as well about the best way to approach it. We knew it was going to be a difficult situation for a lot of people.

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Jeneroux. It's Barry Power speaking. Absolutely. They are in the recommendations and in many of the directives that we've seen come out from many of the colleges. There is a recommendation that the pharmacists exercise their clinical judgment. Absolutely, if somebody has to drive two hours to get to a pharmacy, it's not reasonable.

Health committee  As soon as we heard about surgeons prescribing hydroxychloroquine, we contacted regulators across the country. We put out a statement advising pharmacists not to fill these prescriptions and to reserve those medications for people with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Most regulators around the country now have similar statements, in some cases a joint one between pharmacy and medicine, if not pharmacy, medicine and nursing, to make sure that these medications are safeguarded for people who are stabilized on them for chronic conditions, or that they are used in an acute care setting such as a hospital where it's under a tight protocol.

Health committee  Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Thériault. We've been in contact with a number of the manufacturing associations, and I believe that, as of yesterday, India has agreed to lift some of the restrictions on the export of the active pharmaceutical ingredients. We are hopeful that this will start the flow again, especially in combination with China coming back online.

Health committee  Sure. Thank you, Mr. Kelloway. This is Barry Power speaking. Actually, I was speaking to a pharmacist in Sydney last week about this very issue. She was explaining some of the concerns that have been brought back to them from patients. The situation in Canada is that we get about 80% of our prescription drugs from China and India, with the bulk of them coming from China.

Health committee  Thank you for inviting the Canadian Pharmacists Association to appear today, during this rather unusual time. I'm Dr. Barry Power and I’m joined by my colleague Dr. Shelita Dattani. We are here on behalf of our 43,000 pharmacist colleagues from every province and territory. We’d like to start today by giving you a quick glimpse into the lives of pharmacists, about 80% of whom are in community pharmacies and close to 15% are in hospitals.