Canada's federal government has narrowly avoided having to pay for twice as much of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin (Cipro) as it thinks it needs to protect its citizens in the case of an outbreak of anthrax.
The federal health department circumvented its own drug patent rules when it ordered about 900 000 tablets of the medication from a generic drug manufacturer, Apotex. The patent, held by Bayer AG, does not expire until 2004. Bayer reportedly threatened to sue. But after an announcement by the government that it would both pay the generic firm the amount of its contract—$C1.3m (£574 000; $825 000)—and buy another 900 000 tablets from Bayer, both drug companies let the health minister, Allan Rock, off the hook.
Apotex said it would not insist on the government honouring its agreement to buy from them, and Bayer offered to cut its price to the same amount that it is charging the US government (about $C1.50 (66p; 95 cents) a tablet—50 cents less than its original price). That matches Apotex's price.
Health department officials said the generic drugs were ordered after Bayer said it could not supply the amount demanded, but Bayer officials denied this. Mr Rock said that there were different versions of the events, but he maintained that his primary responsibility was to protect Canadians by ordering the drug. He later produced affidavits from officials in his department backing up his story, as did Bayer.
Under the patent act, the government could have obtained authorisation to have a non-patented version of ciprofloxacin on a non-commercial basis, but it failed to ask for this. Joe Clark, who heads the Progressive Conservative party, charged in a parliamentary debate that Mr Rock had lost control of his department, and the Canadian Alliance's leader, Stockwell Day, said that Canadians did not know who was telling the truth.
The affair comes at a time when the health minister is shaping up as a credible successor to prime minister Jean Chrétien as leader of the Liberal party after the prime minister retires.
