Yes.
Evidence of meeting #14 for Health in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was patients.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #14 for Health in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was patients.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:20 a.m.
Executive Director, Orchard Recovery Center
I have a printed report that I've given.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Dr. Landau, I just went on my BlackBerry to try to see what the total sales of OxyContin, oxycodone, would be.
Now, tell me if this is correct, but it looks like in 2010 it would be about $2.5 billion.
10:25 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Purdue Pharma Canada
It could be.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
As well, in 2011 it was $2.6 billion.
So if you taper that down to when the drug first came on the market in the mid-nineties, it looks like the total sales could be over $20 billion for OxyContin.
Does that make sense?
10:25 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Purdue Pharma Canada
It's possible, sure.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
That's a huge amount of money, so I wanted to get that on the record.
As well, I'm concerned when I hear people from the pharmaceutical industry talk about jobs when we're talking about addictive drugs and patient safety. I don't think one has anything to do with the other. You can't equate them.
I don't know anyone outside the pharmaceutical industry who, when you say, “Help us save lives, help us reduce harm, make sure your drugs only get to patients when they're safe”, starts talking about jobs.
You say that Purdue Pharma has 400 employees in Canada, which is good. But it's Purdue Pharma's aggressive and illegal marketing, we've heard today, with oxycodone and OxyContin that has caused 500 deaths and thousands of addictions.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
Yes, 500 deaths per year.
Is that the deal, that we now put human life and business—sales—on the same continuum; that when we're talking about human life and human safety, we start talking about jobs and money?
10:25 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Purdue Pharma Canada
May I answer the question?
10:25 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Purdue Pharma Canada
It was certainly not my intention to discount the lives that have been affected by the abuse and misuse of OxyContin. I'm a physician, okay? I just happen to run a pharmaceutical company that produces OxyContin and now markets a product intended to mitigate some of its known risks. We're trying to do the right thing in bringing technology to bear as one component of a risk mitigation strategy that's far more involved for this very difficult problem.
The purpose of mentioning 400 jobs across Canada was simply to acknowledge the fact that I have a commercial affiliation. I'm associated with a company that is a for-profit company. That was my only intention.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
10:25 a.m.
NDP
Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much.
Clearly there is a huge issue in this country as well as in the U.S. about prescription misuse. Clearly the pharmaceutical industry bears responsibility for misleading information, being too close to the medical profession, everything that we've heard today. But I find it interesting that the elephant in the room is why we don't have government oversight of that. I'm curious that we haven't really heard that from any Conservative member.
Dr. Landau, I'd like to ask you, when you responded to my colleague about what you did in the U.S. with the FDA for that period of time, what happened in Canada? Was there a similar intervention or program or discussion with Health Canada? What happened here in this country?
10:25 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Purdue Pharma Canada
I can't speak to specifics regarding history here in Canada or with Health Canada and the Purdue company.
I can say that there has been a dialogue, and it's ongoing, concerning abuse deterrence, abuse, as well as patient-safety-related outcomes. I myself have engaged in multiple discussions with folks who were concerned and interested in understanding the data we've been able to produce in the United States, and of course the determination FDA made in April of 2013 that the new formulation OxyNEO here in Canada has features that they find helpful from a public health perspective.
I'm encouraged, frankly, by Minister Ambrose's acknowledgement that she intends to re-examine the issue, again as one potential part of a multi-part solution.
If I may, I just want to add one other point.
10:25 a.m.
NDP
Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC
No, I have one other question for you. Has Health Canada contacted you at all about your monographs? Do they review them? When you say that you've had discussions, what are those discussions and who approached whom?
10:30 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Purdue Pharma Canada
Product monographs are data driven. They are drafted by pharmaceutical companies like Purdue and others. They are reviewed and scrutinized internally before they are sent to the regulator and of course at the regulator, Health Canada included. It is a mutual agreement that the product is adequately and appropriately represented by all of the language in a product monograph.
Product monographs, when they are produced, are supposed to represent the state of knowledge and the current understanding of both the product and the discipline that exists at that time. That was, to my knowledge, the case with both OxyNEO, when it was introduced in 2012 here in Canada, and with OxyContin, when it was introduced in 1996 here in the same way.
