The invitation from deputy health minister Graham Whitmarsh to a November stakeholder session went to a long list dominated by drug companies.
"The session provides an opportunity to learn about ongoing priorities within the Ministry of Health, as well as pose questions to myself and other Health Ministry Executives," says the emailed invitation to the Nov. 21 meeting at the Pan Pacific Hotel in downtown Vancouver.
About three quarters of the invitees are representatives of drug companies, with the remainder at patient groups, chain drug stores, universities, health authorities and lobbying companies.
"It's got every pharmaceutical company under the sun there," said University of Victoria health researcher Alan Cassels.
"Everything else related to pharmacare seems to be on hold," he said, referring to a September announcement of suspensions and terminations in the health ministry related to contracting and data management that led to the cancellation of at least some research contracts. "Why is this not on hold?"
Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said there are ongoing discussions with stakeholders and she believed the meeting would be focussed on changes the B.C. government made to drug legislation in the spring that included reducing what the province will pay for generic drugs.
It is the fifth such annual meeting held since the government's drug-industry dominated pharmaceutical task force convened in 2007. It will include a keynote address from Lynne Maher, the innovation and design director for the United Kingdom's National Health Service Institute for Innovation and Improvement.
The invitation said priority will be given to invited guests. A list of those invitees was included with Whitmarsh's email.
They include:
Abbott Canada, Kevin Harrington
Actelion Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc., Jacques Archambault and Louise Boisjoly
Alcon Canada, Beth Witney and Rav Gill
Alexion Pharmaceuticals
Allergan Canada, Steve Van-Wyck and Lynda Yanko
Alzheimer Society of BC
Amgen Canada
Apotex
Aptalis Pharma Canada Inc.
Arthritis Consumer Experts
Arthritis Society BC and Yukon
Astellas Pharma Canada Inc.
Asthma Society of Canada
AstraZeneca Canada, Leslie Foord and Robert Godin
Axcan Pharma
Bausch and Lomb, Eric Tse
Baxter Canada , Mike Oliver and Mike Traa
Bayer Inc., Doug Grant and Shiera Stuart
BC Cancer Agency
BC Coalition of Osteoporosis Physicians
BC Health Coalition
BC Lung Association
BC Medical Association, Dan MacCarthy and Jonathan Agnew
BC Pharmacy Association, Coco Lefoka, Parkash Ragsdale and Geraldine Vance
Better PharmaCare Coalition
Biogen Idec Canada, Noelle-Dominique Willems and Paul Petrelli
BIOTECanada, Graeme Fraser and Peter Brenders
Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd., Danny Labbe and Mehmood Alibhai
Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, Donald Allard and Tami Crawley
CADTH
Canada Safeway, Angela Wierzbicki
Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical companies, Russell Williams
Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance
Canadian Association for Healthcare Reimbursement, Bob Kamino
Canadian Association of Chain Drug Stores
Canadian Association of Pharmacy Distribution Management, Brent Teulon
Canadian Association of Pharmacy Distribution Management
Canadian Diabetes Association
Canadian GENERICs Pharmaceutical Association, Dean Crawford (Heenan Blaikie), Jim Keon and Julie Tam
Canadian Health Coalition, Colleen Fuller
Canadian Life & Health Insurance Association Inc.
CEM (Centre for Evaluation of Medicines)
Children's and Women's Health Centre of BC
Cipher Pharmaceuticals Inc., Jason Gross
Cobalt Pharmaceuticals Inc.
College of Pharmacists of BC, Bob Nakagawa and Suzanne Solven
Domrex Pharma
Drug Trading Company Ltd.
Duchesnay Labs
Eisai Limited, Horia Ijacu and Lindsay Williams
Eli Lilly Canada, Marcel Lechanteur and Hal Stovall
EMD Serono, Deborah Brown and Robert Kulik
Erfa, Simon Soucy
Ethypharm Inc., Hafid Touam
Ferring Inc., Yeesha Poon
Fleishman-Hillard, Don Stickney and Mark Reder
Fraser Health Authority, Marc Pelletier and Mits Miyata
Galderma Canada Inc., Joe Quinto
Gastrointestinal Society
Genzyme Canada, Diane Bigras and Monty Keast
GFR Pharma Ltd
Gilead Science, Edward Gudaitis and Faizan Bari
Glaxo Smith Kline, John Kelly and Peter Simpson
Graceway Pharmaceuticals, Rick Tiedemann and Rosalind Falls
Great West Life, Harold Gutovich
Health Shared Services BC, Douglas Kent
HealthPRO
Heart & Stroke Foundation of British Columbia & Yukon
Hill and Knowlton, Steve Vander Wal
Hospira, Annie Brochu
IMS/Brogan
Interior Health Authority, Kevin Peters and Richard Slavik
Janssen-Ortho
JBL Group, Stephen Filbey
KatzGroup
Kidney Foundation of Canada
LEO Pharma Inc., Adam Coote and Brian Carter
LifeScan Canada
LifeSciences BC
Loblaws, Mohinder Jaswal and Richard Leigh
London Drugs, Wynne Powell
Luitpold Pharmaceuticals
Lundbeck Canada
Manulife Financial, Peter Wilkinson
McKesson Canada, Anthony Leong
Mercer, Dan Eisner and Nick Gubbay
Merck Frosst Canada Ltd., Norma Sebestyen and Sheila Davis
Merz Pharma Canada Ltd., Glenn Block
Methapharm Inc.
Mint Pharmaceuticals Inc.
MS Society of Canada, Janet Palm and Sharon Farrish
Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Dick Guest
Next Generation Pharma
Northern Health Authority, Dana Cole
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada, Geoffrey Squires and Michael McLean
Novo Nordisk
Octane
Omega Laboratories
Orbus Pharma Inc.
Osteoporosis Canada - BC Division
Osteoporosis Patient Network
Pacific Blue Cross, Ken Martin
Paladin Labs
Parkinson Society BC
Patient Voices Network (CPSI)
Patient Voices Network (Impact BC)
Pendopharm, Division of/ de Pharmascience Inc.
Pensions BC, Bruce Kennedy
Pension Board of Trustees
Pfizer Canada, Bob Dawson and Christopher Smith
Pharmasave BC, Ken Foreman, Ken
Pharmasave Drugs (National) Ltd.
PharmaScience / Pharmel / Zymcan/Pendopharm
Positive Living BC
Providence Health Care
Purdue Pharma, Karen Clark and Lance Payne
Quintiles Canada Inc.
Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals, Paul Drake
RepliCel Life Sciences
Roche Canada, Ilona Torontali , Katia Oteman and Ronnie Miller
Rx Canada, Wendy Nelson
Sandoz Canada, Jacques Bergeron and Leonor Ferreira
Sanofi-Aventis, Brian Eccleston and Dan Kennedy
Schering Plough Canada, Anil Kaul
Sepracor Pharmaceuticals Inc., Natasha Lenton
Servier Canada, Alan Low and Marilyn Tomney
Shire Canada
Shire Human Genetic Therapies (Canada) Inc.
Shoppers Drug Mart
Smith & Nephew, Andriy Moshyk
Sterimax
Sun Life Financial Canada, Bruce Moffat
Takeda Canada, John Warrington and Laurene Redding
Taro Pharmaceuticals, Hans Vanderdoe
Teva Canada, Liliana Polcari and Terry Creighton
Theramed
Transderma
Triton Pharma, Phillip Harrison
UBC, Jiri Frohlich, Robert Sindelar and Stuart MacLeod
UBC Centre for Health Services & Policy Research, Steve Morgan and Michael Law
UBC CHEOS
UBC Faculty of Medicine, Gavin Stuart, Brian Warriner, Vijaya Musini and others
UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
UBC Practice Innovation, Peter Zed
UBC Staff, Sleep Disorders Programme
UBC, Providence Health Care Research Institute
UBC, Therapeutics Initiative, Jim Wright
UCB Canada Inc., Jeannie Morrison and Robert Tam
uniPHARM Wholesale Drugs
Valeant Pharmaceuticals Canada, Gaetan Carriere and Lindsay Williams
Valeo Pharma
Vancouver Island Health Authority, Michele Babich and Richard Bachand
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Canada), Robert Kulik and Robert Woolstencroft
Vita Health Products Inc.
Warner Chilcott Canada Co., Kelli Keesey and Martin Cho
Watson PharmaCompany, Simon Ferazzi
Wellspring Pharmaceutical Canada Corp.
WPC Government Relations
Wyeth Pharnaceuticals (1883)
Xenon Pharmaceuticals
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Find him on Twitter or reach him here.
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