Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1525

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Publication type: news

Fidelman C.
Druggists probed for illegal gifts: Order investigates. Kickbacks from pharmaceutical firms might have included loans, houses, trips
The Montreal Gazette 2003 Dec 5

Full text:

Quebec’s pharmacists are furious their professional order has won the right to continue a massive investigation into kickbacks in the pharmaceutical industry.

The Quebec Order of Pharmacists is looking into allegations that 600 druggists took gifts from makers of generic drugs to promote their no-name medication.

“They’re not happy. There’s enough policing going on without checking into what we do,” said Leon Steinfeld, who works for a Côte des Neiges pharmacy.

“In other provinces the pharmacists get all kinds of compensation. It’s like any business. If you buy more, you get some benefits. So what’s the big deal?”

Kickbacks allegedly went beyond promotional material like writing pads and plastic pill dispensers, said Jocelyn Binet, who is carrying out the investigation for the order. Those “materials” may have included interest-free loans, cash, gift and gasoline certificates, cars, swimming pools, houses, cruises and trips to Europe, he said.

“These are only allegations,” Binet said.

“Getting proof is in fact doing an inquiry, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

The order was tipped off when the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec filed lawsuits against four pharmaceutical companies, seeking to recover $50 million in rebates and gifts to pharmacists who promote their products.

Kickbacks are illegal in Quebec, said Nathalie Pitre of the health insurance board. “We are suing the manufacturers, not pharmacists.”

Binet said he followed a paper trail in the lawsuits that led to 600 pharmacists, most of whom own their own businesses.

“I just want to find out the truth for the public interest,” he said. It will be up to the order’s disciplinary board to determine whether the alleged infractions contravene its code of ethics.

Of the 6,500 pharmacists licensed in Quebec, 1,500 are independent.

Penalties could range from $600 to $6,000 per infraction.

“The order has overstepped its bounds,” said a Montreal pharmacist who spoke on the condition his name not be published.

“They’re looking in wrong places. Why does (medication) that costs $4 to make sell for $80? The cost of brand-name drugs is phenomenal,” he added.

The Quebec association of pharmacist-owners dismissed Binet’s “rumour-based” investigation as “illegal and abusive” and too broad in scope.

Five independent pharmacists (including Normand Cadieux, director of the association of pharmacist-owners) had won a 10-day temporary injunction last month to stop the probe. That injunction was lifted this week; an association representative said the group is appealing.

But a letter by Cadieux posted on his group’s Web site – www.aqpp.qc.ca – says these “advantages” pose no ethical problems for the pharmacist and they have “no effect on the price of medication.”

“We’re looking into the link between pharmacists, doctors and pharmaceutical industry marketing,” Cathy Rouleau, an aide to Health Minister Philippe Couillard, said yesterday.

Public consultations are being planned for spring, she added.