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MPs reject bid to quash drug council appointment

By: Mia Rabson

Posted: 12/8/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

OTTAWA -- A Manitoba MP fears the reputation of the agency responsible for funding health research in Canada is in jeopardy after a House of Commons committee rejected her motion to try to quash the appointment of a drug company executive to the institute's board.The health committee Monday debated the qualifications of Dr. Bernard Prigent, vice-president and medical director of Pfizer Canada, to the governing council of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. His appointment was announced by Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq in October but an outpouring of concern, including a petition with over 3,600 signatures, led the committee to take it upon itself to review Prigent's credentials.

The committee could not actually stop the appointment but could recommend to Parliament and the prime minister it be rescinded.

Winnipeg MP and NDP health critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis said there is a huge conflict of interest to put a man whose loyalties lie with his company's shareholders on the board that makes decisions about where health research in Canada will be focused.

"This guy is going to have to recuse himself more often than not," said Wasylycia-Leis in committee Monday.

The committee heard conflicting testimony about whether Prigent can in fact do the job.

Jocelyn Downie, the Canada Research chair in health law and policy and a law professor at Dalhousie University, said there will be times CIHR researchers might be critical of Pfizer products or promotions, and real, or perceived as a threat, his presence could scare researchers off from voicing those findings. "(His appointment is) a real threat to the reputation of the council," said Downie.

But Dr. Jean Rouleau, dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Montreal and a member of the CIHR governing council, said CIHR needs someone with Prigent's knowledge and skills to help build more ways to get quality research from the lab to patients.

Rouleau also said to suggest Prigent, as one industry executive on a board of 20 people, would have such undue influence, is ridiculous and an insult to the other members of the board who "didn't just fall off the turnip truck."

The governing council of CIHR does not actually approve individual research grants. Instead it sets the policy direction and strategy for the agency, which funds over 13,000 researchers and trainees at universities, hospitals and research facilities across the country.

Wasylycia-Leis's motion calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to rescind Prigent's appointment was defeated by the Conservative and Bloc Quebecois members. Conservative MPs on the committee called Wasylycia-Leis's motion "terrible" and "insulting."

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 8, 2009 A6

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