Transcript:
Don Davies:
The lobbying registry reveals that you and members of your political office met with pharmaceutical companies and lobbyists 15 times between October and December 22 alone. Why would you meet 15 times with industry and not once with an agency in your own portfolio?
Jean Yves Duclos:
I must have met with thousands of stakeholders and partners over the last year, and I meet lots of people.
Unidentified Reporter:
The Breach Media outlet reported yesterday that Duclos asked the PMPRB to stop consultations after being lobbied by the pharmaceutical industry.
Jean Yves Duclos:
In this letter, I respectfully invited the board to consider pausing the consultation process to allow more time for stakeholders.
Douglas Clark:
To say that I was surprised by that letter would be an understatement, and its content was of grave concern to me, my senior staff and our general council.
Matthew Herder:
Industry now knows that it can bypass the PMPRB when it isn’t satisfied with the Board’s policy direction and get the minister to do its bidding. It is an arrow straight to the heart of the board’s supposed independence.
Don Davies:
Mr. Herder has stated publicly that quote, “your request to suspend consultations for reasons that were indistinguishable in form and substance from industry talking points undermined the board’s credibility.”
Matthew Herder:
The question we should all be asking is when will we ever stand up to industry’s power and take the steps that are needed to make medicines more affordable for Canadians?
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Lobbyists have woven themselves into the fabric of our government and threaten our democracy. Infectious disease doctors have the reputation for being the smartest of all medical personnel. The Chief Officer of Public Health and her Deputy are infectious disease doctors, not public health and owe their loyalty and takes his direction from the 13,000 member private Infectious Diseases Society of America [IDSA] and is the reason why we don’t have a made-in-Canada set-of Lyme guidelines or pharmacare. They have the Minister’s ear and don’t want it. The long-term disability insurance industry doesn’t want to underwrite the costs of Lyme and tick-borne disease treatment. Medicine is self-regulating but that is a privilege, not a right and must soon end as the public good has been forgotten. Shareholder preferences now drive medicine and shareholders are not interested in cures, new antibiotics or vaccines. The paradigm of modern medicine is to palliate with treatment that provide life-time annuities to the pharmaceutical industry that pays for research, medical schools and political parties. How about some cures?