Asleep At The Switch
"Maybe as a good corporate citizen, Sandoz might actually take a loss, or sell the product at its original price to win back the good will of the purchasers in Canada", opined Steve Morgan, associate director of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia.
Maybe? Don't they have a moral obligation in there somewhere? After all, they as good as had/have the inside track on supplying the lion's share of critical drugs for most hospitals in Canada. That's a privileged position, is it not? Yet despite that privilege and the responsibility that partners it, the company's Canadian division was lax in its quality control.
And because of that lack of critical diligence, the U.S. monitoring authorities have demanded it bring its operations up to standards before it will be permitted to export its product into the United States, a huge market. Which need to upgrade facilities to reach that target, along with an unfortunate fire inside its production premises, caused a shortfall in production.
The result of which has caused Canadian hospitals to frantically scramble to ensure they have sufficient critical drugs so that surgeries can proceed, and people who require drugs for serious health issues aren't left high and dry. Health Canada and its provincial counterparts have certainly been asleep at the switch in not ensuring that they had agreements in place with alternate suppliers.
"We got into this situation because Health Canada did not plan in advance, and now we're being held hostage", according to Dr. Joel Lexchin, a drug-policy expert whose advice has been followed by governments around the world. "We're now in a position where we have very few options. "Approving drugs and making sure that they're available in the country is the responsibility of the federal government."
Fact is, negotiations are underway with alternate potential suppliers, foreign pharmaceutical manufacturers; mostly, though, Novartis for whom Sandoz is the generic-drug subsidiary. And guess what? because Health Canada is not negotiating from strength but rather through a fog of desperation to plug the gap of supply, the upper hand is held by Sandoz.
Fifteen of the 23 applications from drug manufacturers that could provide Canadian hospitals with their needed 100 types of painkillers, sedatives and cardiac drugs in use daily, are from Sandoz. They won't be giving any of it away. They will be charging top dollar. Because of the current conditions of shortage, the advantage is with the supplier, not the purchaser.
Preferred vendor status should be yanked out from under Sandoz Canada. It has amply demonstrated it is not serious enough about retaining that status, through a continued and reliable flow of product assured to Canadian hospitals.
And Health Canada should be taking a lesson from all of this; they have failed the most basic test of their own responsibility to Canadians.
Maybe? Don't they have a moral obligation in there somewhere? After all, they as good as had/have the inside track on supplying the lion's share of critical drugs for most hospitals in Canada. That's a privileged position, is it not? Yet despite that privilege and the responsibility that partners it, the company's Canadian division was lax in its quality control.
And because of that lack of critical diligence, the U.S. monitoring authorities have demanded it bring its operations up to standards before it will be permitted to export its product into the United States, a huge market. Which need to upgrade facilities to reach that target, along with an unfortunate fire inside its production premises, caused a shortfall in production.
The result of which has caused Canadian hospitals to frantically scramble to ensure they have sufficient critical drugs so that surgeries can proceed, and people who require drugs for serious health issues aren't left high and dry. Health Canada and its provincial counterparts have certainly been asleep at the switch in not ensuring that they had agreements in place with alternate suppliers.
"We got into this situation because Health Canada did not plan in advance, and now we're being held hostage", according to Dr. Joel Lexchin, a drug-policy expert whose advice has been followed by governments around the world. "We're now in a position where we have very few options. "Approving drugs and making sure that they're available in the country is the responsibility of the federal government."
Fact is, negotiations are underway with alternate potential suppliers, foreign pharmaceutical manufacturers; mostly, though, Novartis for whom Sandoz is the generic-drug subsidiary. And guess what? because Health Canada is not negotiating from strength but rather through a fog of desperation to plug the gap of supply, the upper hand is held by Sandoz.
Fifteen of the 23 applications from drug manufacturers that could provide Canadian hospitals with their needed 100 types of painkillers, sedatives and cardiac drugs in use daily, are from Sandoz. They won't be giving any of it away. They will be charging top dollar. Because of the current conditions of shortage, the advantage is with the supplier, not the purchaser.
Preferred vendor status should be yanked out from under Sandoz Canada. It has amply demonstrated it is not serious enough about retaining that status, through a continued and reliable flow of product assured to Canadian hospitals.
And Health Canada should be taking a lesson from all of this; they have failed the most basic test of their own responsibility to Canadians.
Labels: Government of Canada, Health, Human Fallibility
posted by Pieface | 7:14 PM
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