Manitoba regulator loses appeal: internet pharmacy pioneer’s licence reinstated

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This article was published 15/08/2023 (796 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE College of Pharmacists of Manitoba has lost its appeal in the province’s highest court that sought to pull the licence of an internet pharmacy pioneer convicted of a felony charge in the United States.

The Council of the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba had cancelled Kristjan Eric Thorkelson’s pharmaceutical licence in November 2019 after his 2018 guilty plea in Montana in relation to allegations involving the importation and sale of counterfeit drugs.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Colleen Suche ordered in February 2022 that Thorkelson’s licence to practise in Manitoba be reinstated, finding that in other similar decisions, serious misconduct had resulted in fines, not a loss of licence.

Thorkelson, who became a licensed pharmacist in 1991, is the former chief executive officer of Canadadrugs.com, which is now defunct. At one time it was the largest international pharmacy business in the world.

At its height, the online pharmacy and its group of companies, including the United Kingdom-based wholesaler River East Supplies Ltd., made up the world’s largest international pharmacy business.

The college and council took the King’s Bench decision to the Court of Appeal in February this year, where Thorkelson also filed a cross appeal over the King’s Bench decision.

The college had asked the Appeal Court to examine whether Suche made errors in law, including by conflating the council’s administrative authority with its disciplinary authority. The council and college also appealed the amount of costs it was ordered to pay.

Thorkelson, in his cross appeal, sought to have the justices allow him to appeal Suche’s decision that the American conviction was at all relevant to whether he was suitable to be licensed as a pharmacist in Manitoba.

Court of King’s Bench Associate Chief Justice Shane Perlmutter, sitting on the appeal court with two other judges on the case, decided last Wednesday to uphold the King’s Bench decision and dismiss the appeal with costs.

Perlmutter wrote that there was no need to hear Thorkelson’s cross appeal, as he was successful overall.

Thorkelson was one of six Canadians arrested by U.S authorities in July 2017 and targeted for extradition in connection to the drug investigation.

River East bought a cancer drug, Avastin, from Caremed, a wholesale pharmacy in Denmark, then resold some of it to a clinic in the U.S. in October 2011, according to court documents.

Within a few weeks, the American clinic then told River East that the drug appeared suspect. The U.K.-based supplier arranged to have the drug returned and notified Caremed, which contacted its European drug regulator.

The matter was investigated by drug regulators in both the United States and in the U.K. and neither took action.

Thorkelson had no direct involvement in those events, according to the court documents, but in 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an indictment against Thorkelson, CanadaDrugs, River East, two other corporations in the business group and several employees, charging them with smuggling, money laundering and conspiracy.

Thorkelson struck a plea with U.S. authorities to the single charge and was given five years probation, six months of house arrest, a fine of $250,000 and was ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution. The offence that Thorkelson pleaded to is laid when a guilty person has knowledge of an offence, did not notify authorities as soon as possible and took steps to conceal it.

The charge rested on a March 2012 email Thorkelson sent to CanadaDrugs.com employees claiming CanadaDrugs had “absolutely no connection to selling and offering Avastin given that CanadaDrugs.com has never offered that product for sale.”

CanadaDrugs, River East, and a third company in the business group, Rockley Ventures, pleaded guilty to introducing and delivering misbranded pharmaceuticals and selling and dispensing counterfeit drugs in exchange for all other charges being dropped.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca