US embassy cable - 05OTTAWA1803

UNCLAS OTTAWA 001803 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, ECON, SOCI, CA, Health, Ujjal Dosanjh 
SUBJECT: HEALTH MINISTER ON INTERNET PHARMACIES: TAKE TWO 
PREVIOUS STATEMENTS AND CALL ME IN A FEW WEEKS 
 
REF: OTTAWA 0525 (CANADA SEEKS REGULATORY 
 
     PRESCRIPTION FOR INTERNET PHARMACIES) 
 
1.  Summary:  At yesterday's meeting of the House Committee 
on Health, Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh stated that he did 
not wish to destroy the internet pharmacy industry, but that 
he was committed to addressing potential drug shortages in 
Canada and the underlying "ethical questions" of doctors 
cosigning prescriptions without seeing the patients in 
question.  Despite barbed questioning from committee members 
who pointed out that he first made statements against the 
internet pharmacy trade in November 2004, Minister Dosanjh 
provided no new insight into the GOC's likely response to the 
internet pharmacy trade, stating only that he would present a 
selection of his already-public options to the cabinet in the 
next few weeks.  Pharmacy regulation in Canada, however, is 
primarily the responsibility of the provinces, and therefore 
any GOC action may have limited immediate effect.  End 
Summary. 
 
2.  Minister Dosanjh had been invited to testify to the 
committee specifically on the internet pharmacy issue, but 
instead used his presentation time to focus on other issues 
such as ministry transparency and Health Canada's new Adverse 
Drug Reaction database.  In fact, a committee member asked 
(as an ostensible point of order) whether Dosanjh knew why he 
had been asked to testify.  The hearing was interrupted by a 
number of such testy interchanges, particularly between 
Minister Dosanjh and Conservative member Steven Fletcher. 
Minister Dosanjh tried to highlight recent progress in his 
ministry, but these attempts were rebuffed by members who 
complained that the above-mentioned database was hard to use 
and wait-times for medical treatments are too long (comment: 
benchmarks for appropriate wait times aren't expected till 
December, and provinces won't be required to report progress 
until 2007; Brenda Chamberlain, a member of Dosanjh's own 
Liberal party, argued heatedly that even then the federal 
government would not have strong enforcement options.  End 
comment.) 
 
3.  On the topic of internet pharmacies, Dosanjh received 
barbed questions from both sides, with some members pushing 
for action after over six months of promises from Dosanjh and 
other members calling on Dosanjh to protect the internet 
pharmacy industry.  Dosanjh restated the options he has 
previously listed for dealing with the internet pharmacy 
trade (banning cosigning, controlling exports through a list 
of not-for-export drugs or through export licenses, and 
requirements that purchasers be physically present in Canada. 
 See Ottawa 0525)  Dosanjh also mentioned the possibility of 
banning bulk exports, an option that is viewed positively by 
many in Canada because it would allow the internet pharmacy 
industry to continue as it has, while countering any possible 
U.S. federal or state importation program.  Dosanjh said that 
he hoped to provide these options to a cabinet meeting in 
upcoming weeks, but averred that he would "not be rushed," 
which did little to appease Quebecois members whose ridings 
include pharmaceutical companies as constituents (comment: on 
the other hand, a western member with internet pharmacy 
constituents advocated many more years of monitoring the 
industry before taking action).  For those members urging 
rapid action, much of the concern over the delay seemed to 
center around the idea that reacting to any U.S. legislation 
would be difficult once Parliament is recessed; Minister 
Dosanjh countered that the GOC could take relatively rapid 
action under the Export Control Act, but that this would only 
be a temporary fix.  In fact, any GOC action may have limited 
effectiveness since, as we have noted before (ref Ottawa 
0525), pharmacy regulation is primarily the responsibility of 
the provinces and a number of provinces are protective of 
their internet pharmacy industries. 
 
4.  Minister Dosanjh resisted a fellow westerner's attempt to 
place the issue into the context of an intra-Canadian 
regional trade dispute (with primarily-western internet 
pharmacies ranged against primarily-eastern pharmaceutical 
companies.)  Instead, Minister Dosanjh reiterated that his 
concern is for security of the Canadian drug supply and the 
Canadian drug pricing regime.  Minister Dosanjh claimed that 
U.S. politicians fall into two camps on this issue:  one camp 
hoping to "smash the pricing regime in Canada" and the other 
camp hoping to bring a similar pricing regime to the United 
States.  In response, Minister Dosanjh reiterated that he is 
firmly committed to protecting the pricing regime in Canada 
and the drug supply for Canadians, but that cabinet 
confidentiality meant that he couldn't tell the committee how 
 
SIPDIS 
he planned to do that. 
 
Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa 
 
DICKSON