The Hook

Friday's closed meeting on reordering British Columbia's drug approval process was only for “stakeholders”, the majority of whom are in the business of making or selling drugs.

A health ministry spokesperson provided a list of the organizations that were represented at the meeting. It shows 31 of the organizations were directly from the drug industry, seven were from pharmacies and two were from insurance companies. The rest of the attendees were from patient groups, the University of B.C., the B.C. Medical Association and the health ministry.

Media requests to attend the meeting were refused, as was that of NDP health critic Adrian Dix, who said ministry officials have promised to brief him later.

While the government's list of attendees did not name the individuals representing the various organizations, the Tyee obtained the complete list from another source. What follows is the list provided by the government, with the names of representatives added where possible:

Abbott Canada: Kevin Harrington

Accel Pharma Inc.

Alcon Canada: Rav Gill, Beth Witney

Amgen Canada: Jim Favaro

Apotex Inc.: Karen Sullivan, Elie Betito

Arthritis Consumer Experts: Quincey Kirschner, Jay Fiddler

AstraZeneca Canada: Leslie Foord

Bayer Inc.: Shiera Stuart

Better Pharmacare Coalition: Pamela Gole, Cheryl Koehn

BIOTECanada

Boehringer Ingelheim Canada Ltd.: Danny L'Abbe

Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada: Tami Crawley

British Columbia Lung Association: Kelly Ablog-Morrant

British Columbia Medical Association

British Columbia Pharmacy Association: Marnie Mitchell, Lynda Lytle

Brogan Inc.

Canada Health Coalition: Colleen Fuller

Canada Safeway Ltd.: Darcy Stann

Canada's Research Based Pharmaceutical Companies: Sharon McKinnon

Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance: Colleen Maloney

Canadian Association of Chain Drug Stores: Jim Waters

Canadian Association of Pharmacy Distribution Management: David Johnston, Derek Desrosiers (Unipharm)

Canadian Diabetes Association: Jean Blake, Karen Philp

Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association: Dean Crawford, Jim Keon

Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc.: Irene Klatt

Canadian Society of Intestinal Research

Cobalt Pharmaceuticals Inc.: Jane Farnham-Verway, Ray Haymour

College of Pharmacists of B.C.: Suzanne Solven, Marshall Moleschi

Eli Lilly Canada Inc.: Hal Stovall

GenPharm ULC: Ian Hilley, Mark Mantel

Generic Partnerships

GlaxoSmithKline Inc.: Peter Simpson, John Kelly

Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.: Lydia Lanman, Stephen Filbey

Janssen-Ortho Inc.: Jo-Ann Stuart Chatterley, Brent Korte

Kidney Foundation of Canada: Lorraine Ferard

LifeSciences British Columbia: Karimah Es Sabar, Simon Pimstone (Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc.), David Hall (Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc.)

London Drugs: Jim Rama, John Tse

Merck Frosst Canada Ltd.: Norma Sebestyen, Stelios Azoudis

Mint Pharmaceuticals Inc.: Rhonda Dorren, Ian Grantham

Mood Disorders Association of British Columbia: Rennie Hoffman

MS Society of Canada: Janet Palm

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc.: Geoff Squires, Kyle Steiger

Novopharm Ltd.: Menno Froese, Terry Creighton

Pacific Blue Cross: Leza Muir

Parkinson Society British Columbia: Diane Robinson

P&G Pharmaceuticals Canada: Martin Cho

Pharmascience Inc.: Jeremy Ferdinands, Neil Goodbrand

ratiopharm Canada: Andrew van der Gugten

Rx Canada: Wendy Nelson

Sandoz Canada Inc.: Leonor Ferreira

sanofi-aventis Canada Inc.: Dan Kennedy

Shoppers Drug Mart: Bill Bright

University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine: Colin Dormuth, Ken Bassett

University of British Columbia, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences: Robert Sindelar, James McCormack

Wyeth Canada: John Warrington

Ministry of Health Services: Gordon Macatee, Michael MacDougall, Craig Knight, Bab Nakagawa, Paul Gudaitis, Eric Lun, David Morel, Dan Doyle, Joanna Richards, Pam Scott, Woody Turnquist, Vivian Ip.

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.