Anthrax drug deal lands Rock in hot water Officials blame junior employees for no-name order Robert Fife in Ottawa and Michael Friscolanti in Toronto
National Post, with files from Southam News
OTTAWA and TORONTO - Junior employees at Health Canada are to blame for a decision to order a no-name version of Cipro, a leading anthrax antibiotic, from a company that is not licensed to produce the pill, senior government officials say.
In an effort to defuse the controversy, the government called for an emergency meeting early next week with officials from Bayer AG, the German company that owns the Canadian patent for Cipro.
Facing a public relations disaster, advisors to Allan Rock, the Minister of Health and a Liberal leadership contender, and other senior government officials said the department will blame junior workers for purchasing one million generic Cipro tablets from Apotex Inc., a Toronto-based company.
In a television interview yesterday, Mr. Rock brushed aside questions over whether his department violated the Patent Act by failing to make application to the patent commissioner before making a deal with Apotex.
"I will allow the lawyers to deal with the legislation. I do believe that we have to abide by the patent legislation and we will do so. But ultimately, the most important thing is to fulfill my responsibility as Minister of Health and to ensure that we have the necessary medications on hand."
Bayer, the firm that invented Cipro, said yesterday that although it was "surprised and disappointed" to learn from the media that Health Canada had placed an order with Apotex, it still wants to work with Mr. Rock and his staff to supply the drug in Canada.
The company wrote a letter to Mr. Rock yesterday "suggesting a solution that will work for the benefits of Canadians," but officials would not disclose details of that proposition.
But a Bayer spokesman did deny the government's earlier claim that the firm was unable to meet its demand for Cipro -- the reason Health Canada originally said it turned to Apotex for help.
"To give you some sense of our supply, I checked the status of our warehousing in Toronto just before this meeting, where we have millions of tablets ready for dispatch," said Bayer Canada executive vice-president Phil Blake.
He said his company would have had no trouble filling the order placed with Apotex, which is scheduled to be delivered on Nov. 8, but Mr. Rock's staff never asked them to do it.
"We never received an order for that quantity of tablets and do not wish to speculate about why they went to an external third party," Mr. Blake said. "We certainly have asked that question of Health Canada."
One senior government official complained Health Canada "just made mistakes" by buying the generic antibiotics without following proper legal procedures, which in urgent situations allow Ottawa to sidestep patent laws.
"There were just mistakes made as to who was talking to who. Officials were talking to Bayer at junior levels and everything got confused," the senior official said.
Another official told the Post that Mr. Rock is prepared to compensate Bayer if the government made a mistake.
"We are not looking to infringe the law obviously ... so if something needs to be corrected, it will be corrected," the official said. "How that may be done or to what extent it needs to be done has to be worked out."
Another official close to Mr. Rock also pointed the finger at low-level officials in the Health Department, claiming they did not follow the proper procedure. The government could have asked the patent protection office to suspend Bayer's exclusive patent, but that was never done.
"None of the directions came from the Minister or his office ... So there was no involvement by him or anyone in his office as to the whole chronology as to the time they approached Bayer and ended up at Apotex," said an official who did not want to be identified.
Apotex president Jack Kay said that whatever solution is reached, Health Canada cannot back out of its contract to buy drugs from his generic company, because he has a contract order and the firm began producing tablets in its plant on Wednesday.
"I would sue them," Mr. Kay said.
The issue dominated Parliament yesterday and put the government on the defensive as Herb Gray, the Deputy Prime Minister, sought to defuse the issue.
Mr. Rock did not show up in the Commons to answer questions about the controversy, but he granted an interview to a wire service in which he refused to say whether his department violated patent law in ordering the generic antibiotics from Apotex, a company that has contributed almost $50,000 to the Liberal party.
Mr. Blake also expressed concern about the quality of the unapproved generic drugs. "It cannot be assured that it complies with the regulations designed to guarantee the efficacy, safety and purity of pharmaceuticals here in Canada."
Mr. Rock would not say last night whether he would stick with Apotex -- whose generic Cipro order from Health Canada is worth $1.5-million -- as a source of supply now that Bayer says it has ample product to meet Canada's needs.
"I want the dispute resolved," he said. "My bottom line is having a stockpile of medications for 100,000 people."
In the Commons, Joe Clark, the Conservative leader, asked: "There is no question the government broke the law ... Does the Minister of Justice intend to prosecute the Minister of Health for breaking the law of Canada?"
Mr. Gray did not respond to the question, but later told the House the government would respect the patent law.