Pharma giant lands in Kirkland

be able to approach health care differently, and we want to do it in a way that will offer us the opportunity to better care for people," said Charest during his speech, adding that policy makers have made a conscious choice to help the pharmaceutical industry in order to reach that goal, rather than prioritize money to hospitals.

Both Charest and Carlos Dourado, Schering Plough Canada's president and GM, mentioned the importance of regulations and laws in Quebec and Canada that allow for protection of intellectual property and reward innovation in the pharmaceutical industry.

However, Dourado also warned his audience that Canada should be doing more to help out. "Canada should work to remain competitive," he told a room full of Schering Plough employees. "New markets and competition are emerging in China, in India, and elsewhere," he said, calling on constant dialogue and adjustment to new realities.

Dourado said that the company's new head office is a symbol of their faith in Quebec and Canada.

The new $18.5 million head office is located along Highway 40 near a Schering Plough Canada distribution centre as well as the head office of corporate rival Pfizer Canada. Schering Plough Canada manufactures several well-known consumer products, such as Claritin, Dr. Scholls, Coppertone and Muskol. The company also invests into research of infectious diseases and cancer and provides treatment for some types of the latter.

"Thirty years ago if you were diagnosed with cancer, it was a death sentence," Dourado said at the news conference. He said that significant progress has been made thanks largely to better detection abilities and "prevention through education." However he could not provide an estimate of how much of Schering Plough's research is invested in prevention, and how much is invested into curative or treatment measures.