Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to this issue probably because we have been raising it at the health committee and with the minister in this House for almost the last year.
The minister said some important things that I did not realize she had jurisdiction over. She said that the federal government has jurisdiction over the regulatory framework that allows it to look at contamination and safety standards and quality for unsafe manufacturing standards in any kind of manufacturing sector that has to do with health. I need to ask the minister a question and I hope she will be able to answer it at some point in time in the House.
Sandoz was told by the FDA in July 2009 that it had breached manufacturing standards with regard to aseptic and contamination processes and with regard to crystallization in its intravenous products. The minister should have known that if she had been checking and inspecting the plants the way she told us she had been. However, she obviously did not bother to do that in July 2009. Then, just prior to the FDA giving a letter to Sandoz in November, the health department decided that Sandoz was doing absolutely appropriate manufacturing practices and that its quality controls were very good.
I need to find out from the minister why she did not act long before she knew about this. To say that she only found out about it recently really concerns me because it means that somebody is foot-dragging on the job here.
We raised this issue in August, September and November 2011 because I, as a physician, and the Liberal Party were very concerned about the potential risk to patients and the safety of patients in this country. We knew this because the Canadian Pharmacists Association had written a report in the fall of 2010 warning and asking the federal government and, in some instances, provincial governments to act with regard to impending shortages. Ninety-eight per cent of pharmacists surveyed in 2010 said that they were having trouble finding certain drugs within the last week.
We are not only talking about drugs used in the ICU, in the OR and in the emergency room. We are talking about drugs used for children, antibiotics, pediatric drugs and essential cancer drugs for patients. We are talking about painkillers and drugs like Prednisone that is an essential drug for many conditions and can actually save lives. We are talking about a shortage of ordinary drugs for epileptics that have been used for many years.
It is interesting to see the surprise the minister evidences when she says that this is the first time she has heard about this even though she knew about it in 2010. Her and the government's reaction in 2010 was to set up a voluntary system. I wanted to contrast this to what the United States did. As soon as it found out about this shortage, congress did an investigation. We have been asking the Department of Health, the minister and the health committee to do a similar investigation, with absolutely no results. Not only that, but the president issued a directive stating that he would like to look into various components of the root causes of this problem, some of which relate to why companies are not making drugs anymore, why a profit margin is a big problem for them and what we can do about it. He was looking for collusion. He was looking for actual financing problems within a manufacturing sector that is very private and is based on supply and marketplace demands only. Therefore, he felt that it was important for him to look at pricing as a cause for why certain drugs were not being made anymore.
Congress will soon be tabling legislation that basically says that companies would need to give three months to six months notice when there is an impending shortage or when they decide they will no longer make a drug. Other companies would then have the opportunity to pick up the slack and make that drug.
We are talking, as the minister so eloquently put it, about drugs that are essential for the life and health of Canadians. As the minister also so eloquently put it, the health department is responsible for the safety of patients in this country.
The United States took immediate steps a while ago to deal with an issue that everyone knew about but our health minister continued her voluntary system, which has not worked, and then waited for a catastrophe to occur, a catastrophe that she is now trying to avert and blame everyone.
The issue of what is happening at Sandoz is only the tip of the iceberg. It is an issue that is affecting many drugs. Sandoz has flagged it. It has created a crisis that made the government suddenly decide to wake up, take notice and do something, except I still hear the minister talking about not regulating and no mandatory websites, but simply going back to trusting everyone to do the very best they can.
I am pleased to know that the minister is interested in working with the provinces, instead of blaming them for sole sourcing. If one looks at the issue of drug shortages, it is not only what happened at Sandoz. We know there are many reasons. For instance, many drugs that were made by generic companies that are no longer profitable are not being made. That is about 90% of the problem. The other 10% of the problem is the fact that there are no raw materials available. However, that is not really an issue. One can deal with raw materials by looking at a robust R and D system that might be able to find new materials to make drugs.
The problem really is that the provinces need to buy the drugs they can afford on their formularies and, therefore, are looking for the cheapest drugs. When a drug becomes so cheap in the country that there is no profit margin for a generic company, the generic company stops making it. Regulations will be put in place in the United States to deal with that. Why does the minister not look at the legislation and regulations in Canada and do the same thing in order to forewarn us and find a way to look at a moral imperative, whether it is a tax credit or whatever the incentive, to ensure that companies that no longer make drugs because of lack of a profit margin have some sort of incentive. I do not know what the answer is but this is the greatest source of the problem and we need to look at it.
The minister was warned and yet has done very little. Now, suddenly, she is saying that she is willing to do a lot of things. I would like to give her some ideas.
Within the Food and Drug Administration there is sector called the drug shortages program which has been in place for quite a while. I believe there are 11 people working in that sector and they are there to work closely with the manufacturing sector, the hospitals and the pharmacists to find out what drugs will have shortages, find a way to avert the shortage and ensure that there will not be a shortage. They have been doing that quite well within the Food and Drug Administration of the United States. Why has the food and drug administrative area within the minister's department done the same thing? It has a best practice and it has seen it work.
We are talking about what a responsible government does. We have seen what the United States FDA does as a responsible government. We have seen what congress does as a responsible government that cares about the health of its citizens. I would like to know the reason for the foot dragging. What is the reason for us not following the best practice?
When we look at global shortages, the minister is putting a band-aid on a problem. Sandoz is not the problem. Sandoz is part of the problem but it is only one of the things that is causing drug shortages. The minister says that she and her department are going out of their way to get offshore sourcing for the drugs that Sandoz is no longer making. Because this is a global problem, there will come a time when those drugs will not be available to us in Canada and I would like—