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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Captain Jack who wrote (8315)	10/22/2001 10:40:45 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 27734

I'm sure it will come back to haunt Alan Rock eventually. For someone with Prime Ministerial aspirations, not good. But, years to go, we Canadians will forget if not forgive. He suggested in the House yesterday that Bayer wasn't answering government phone calls. LOL. "The minister has said his officials asked Bayer twice to supply the necessary antibiotics and were turned down. But Bayer says it was never asked, and the firm went on the offensive last week, announcing that it had millions of Cipro tablets waiting and ready to go." Under heat and common sense principles, things have changed now [LOL] - late news: Ottawa, Bayer reach deal for anthrax-drug supply By JEFF GRAY Globe and Mail Update After the federal Health Minister faced another day of opposition criticism for ignoring Bayer AG's patent for an anti-anthrax medication, Health Canada struck a deal to make the firm its official supplier. The agreement, announced by Health Canada Monday night, comes after the government had made a deal with Toronto-based Apotex Inc. to supply a cheaper generic version of the drug. Bayer will supply one million tablets of the medicine within two days after a federal request, Health Canada said in a release. Health Canada has also agreed work with Bayer to "deal appropriately" with the order given to Apotex. Earlier, federal Health Minister Allan Rock acknowledged that there were "differing versions" of the events behind what opposition MPs said was his government's decision to ignore the patent held by the German drug giant. Mr. Rock came under fire Monday in Question Period as the opposition seized on allegations that the government ignored Bayer's Canadian patent for the anti-anthrax drug Cipro when it ordered a generic version from Apotex in the wake of bio-terrorist attacks in the United States. The minister has said his officials asked Bayer twice to supply the necessary antibiotics and were turned down. But Bayer says it was never asked, and the firm went on the offensive last week, announcing that it had millions of Cipro tablets waiting and ready to go. "The emergency response officials at Health Canada acted in good faith in taking the steps they did to stockpile medications needed for health security reasons. There are differing versions as to what happened. That will eventually be sorted out," Mr. Rock said. "Mr. Speaker, I want to make clear that I've directed all the interested parties to meet to resolve these issues, to assure everyone that everything was done lawfully, and that's exactly what's going to be done," he said. Mr. Rock later said the government was "doing everything we can to resolve the disputes that are in place at the moment" and pledged that the ministry would do what it had to do to ensure there was an adequate supply anti-anthrax drugs on hand in case of a bio-terrorist attack. Progressive Conservative Leader Joe Clark accused Mr. Rock of having lost control of his department, and Canadian Alliance health critic Diane Ablonczy said the minister's "credibility has suffered a serious setback." The minister has defended his department's controversial decision to give the $1.3-million order for the vaccine to Apotex, which had been preparing to produce a non-authorized copycat version of Cipro, the most popular anti-anthrax drug on the market. Under the Patent Act, the government could have obtained authorization to have a non-patented version of Cipro produced on a "non-commercial basis" but Health Canada officials failed to do so. There was speculation last week that the government would move to compensate Bayer for its decision to buy the generic drug — a scenario opposition critics characterized Monday as forcing taxpayers to pay for the drug twice.