Health committee  Yes, regarding that last point, I would add only that this is good not only for devices and medication but for vaccine development. We've seen that during the pandemic. We're really dependent on the proper evaluation of vaccines by Health Canada. We need to move in a very efficie

Health committee  Definitely. People working on fighting infectious diseases all agree that we need the highest immunization rates possible. Unfortunately, there are no vaccines that combat all infectious agents. So there are still many more vaccines to be developed. I mentioned the respiratory

Health committee  I would have said the same thing. I would add that, unfortunately, the big pharmaceutical companies have little incentive to develop new antibiotics. It is a very complex and very competitive market. So we have to rely on the research done by universities which, however, depend

Health committee  It's probably even worse than the budget allocated to fundamental research in the G7. Yes, we are second-last in that aspect, and it's probably not better than 20th position in the world for children's research. I think there's a lot of ground to be covered.

Health committee  I wouldn't guess any number, but as other witnesses have said, it's a minority, for sure. There's a lack of funding, in general, but it's probably even more pronounced for children's research. That goes from fundamental research all the way to clinical trials, which are also diff

Health committee  Thank you for your question. It is right on the mark. There is in fact a chronic problem with investment in research in Canada, for the past 20 years or so, I would say, and research budgets have stagnated while costs have risen, meaning that we ultimately have less money to con

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wish to thank the committee for inviting me to this meeting. I am a research professor at the Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnolgie of the INRS, or National Institute of Scientific Research, Laval. I also hold the Jeanne and J.‑Louis Lévesque chair i

Industry committee  I think, in fact, that what's needed is to create structures, along the lines of what the National Research Council of Canada has done, that are at the junction of university research and the pharmaceutical industry. That would make them independent of the ups and downs of the ma

Industry committee  As I mentioned earlier, I am worried about that. The success rate in CIHR competitions, for example, is declining. It's below 20% in each competition, meaning that excellent research proposals are not being funded. Furthermore, even when a project is funded, 26% to 27% of the res

Industry committee  Thank you.

Industry committee  As I said in my presentation, there were major investments, and some of my colleagues here before the committee spoke about their results. There were the projects I mentioned and several others in development. There was recently an announcement about a new cell and gene therapy m

Industry committee  I do in fact believe that the WHO's position is defensible. Would the WHO be willing to change its rules? Perhaps not, but it's not too late to act, knowing that other investors, or even the federal government, could take over the cigarette manufacturer's stake. I don't believe

Industry committee  I think we'll have to go back to the early days of the company. In passing, I'm not involved in any way with this company. I have no shares in the company and no particular axe to grind about what it does. Based on what I know, in the early start‑up phases of any project, you te

Industry committee  It came as a surprise to me, as it did for many others. My understanding of the situation is that neither the efficacy nor the safety of the Medicago vaccine were at issue. It was rather the company's links to a tobacco manufacturer. The WHO position was known, and is defensible

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to take part in this meeting. The topic you are discussing is essential to ensuring our national security, responding to the COVID‑19 pandemic and, above all, preparing to cope with future pa