Industry committee  MSF made the commitment to Apotex that if Apotex developed this drug, this three-in-one fixed-dose combination that they needed in the field, they would seek to purchase it under CAMR from Apotex. Given the way the law is worded, in order for MSF to be able to do that, they neede

Industry committee  Oh, I'm sorry, it's Médecins Sans Frontières, Doctors Without Borders. So in order for Apotex to then move forward to be in a position, legally, to sell it to MSF, they needed to be able to go to the brand name companies in Canada that hold the patents on those three drugs and

Industry committee  In some it is. MSF tried for 18 months--and it has a presence in various countries--and it ultimately abandoned the effort because it could not get a country to come forward.

Industry committee  Can I be frank?

Industry committee  On one level it's greed--to be honest--and on another level it's a larger political agenda. And the larger political agenda, which I think has been on full display for decades now, has been that they want to impose on a global basis ever more stringent intellectual property rules

Industry committee  That's right. Well, we only have the one use so far of CAMR, and in that case it was a competitive price. Part of the reason why we've seen the number of people on treatment go up is precisely because the generics have been available. The global fund money, for example, has been

Industry committee  We don't know.

Industry committee  We know it's going to be more difficult now to get generics from India. It may be impossible. Who knows? But there's certainly a patent barrier that has now gone up in India that will start to take effect.

Industry committee  I will do my best. Let me first of all draw your attention to subsection 37(1) of the Food and Drugs Act, which is not changed by all of this. It is already the case in Canada that any drug that is made in Canada for export is not subject to Health Canada review; it is only in

Industry committee  It could, and China is one of the countries that has what's called a “state directive” to implement the WTO decision from 2003, which was the basis for the Canadian legislation. China is one of the countries that has this. It's very deficient, not the least because it's quite li

Industry committee  And they get a payment stream on sales that they are themselves not making now because their pricing strategy in developing countries is not one that makes it affordable for the vast majority of people who have to pay out of pocket for medicines. So those are unrealized sales for

Industry committee  Sure. Could I just offer a correction, or a clarification?

Industry committee  In the one instance when CAMR was used, it was not the case that the Indian generic manufacturer was offering it at a lower price. The prices were actually matched.

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  Yes, I can. I wanted to, before I forget, draw your attention to a document that you have in the materials we gave you. This is a briefing paper prepared by Doctors Without Borders--Médecins Sans Frontières--describing their experience of attempting to use the legislation, worki