People walk past the Shoppers Drug Mart location at corner of King St. East and Yonge St. in downtown Toronto, on Feb 6.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The Ontario College of Pharmacists has cleared a board member in a conflict-of-interest investigation that had threatened to derail the regulator’s promises to tackle unethical corporate practices.
A third-party investigator hired by the college found pharmacist Siva Sivapalan did not fail to disclose a conflict of interest for participating in a class-action lawsuit against Shoppers Drug Mart while the board investigates concerns that large corporate pharmacies – including Shoppers – are putting pressure on their pharmacists to bill for unnecessary services.
Mr. Sivapalan, who previously worked at a Shoppers pharmacy, has been on the college’s board since 2019. The board announced Friday that Mr. Sivapalan had been re-elected to another term.
The college, which oversees the pharmacist profession in Ontario, has a board that is made up of pharmacists elected by other pharmacists in the province, members of the public appointed by the provincial government, and representatives of three pharmacy schools.
One of the biggest issues the college has had to tackle this year is concern that major pharmacy chains are making business decisions that inappropriately restrict patient choice and force health care professionals to carry out unnecessary services that are billed to public insurance plans.
That includes a now-cancelled deal between Loblaw Cos. Ltd. L-T and Manulife Financial Group MFC-T, Canada’s largest insurer, that would have seen some patients forced to buy their medication from Loblaw-owned pharmacies, which includes Shoppers.
The college disclosed at its March board meeting that it surveyed more than 4,000 pharmacists and found that, of those who worked for major corporate pharmacies, more than 80 per cent said they felt they were under inappropriate pressure to boost revenue. By comparison, only 18 per cent of those at independent pharmacies reported the same concern.
The college’s board voted unanimously at that meeting to condemn exclusivity deals between insurers and pharmacies, and expressed it had “zero tolerance” for corporate pressure on pharmacists.
In April, a group of current and former Shoppers pharmacists launched a class-action lawsuit against Loblaw that alleged the company’s practices were “unsafe” and “unethical.” The lead plaintiff was Mr. Sivapalan.
Loblaw has not filed a statement of defence, but has said it believes the lawsuit to be without merit. Loblaw spokesperson Catherine Thomas said the company plans to bring a motion to strike the case.
According to documents The Globe and Mail previously reported on, Mr. Sivapalan said he approached college senior staff and counsel about participating in the lawsuit and received their support.
But after the lawsuit was filed, members of the college – including the board chair – suggested Mr. Sivapalan should step down from the board, which he declined to do. A third-party investigator was then hired to assess whether Mr. Sivapalan’s participation in the lawsuit put him in a conflict of interest with his vote at the March board meeting, as well as with continuing issues.
That investigator found there was no conflict of interest on the March vote, though there could be an appearance of a conflict going forward, according to a report of the governance committee tabled at the college’s board meeting on Friday. However, the investigator found there were no grounds to take action against Mr. Sivapalan, a finding that the governance committee agreed with.
Dave Bourne, a spokesperson for the college, said the report was confidential and would not be released to the public.
Ms. Thomas said Loblaw did not request the investigation, but did ask for Mr. Sivapalan to be recused from matters related to Shoppers’ business.
Aly Haji and Andrea Sanche, lawyers at Ricketts Harris LLP who represented Mr. Sivapalan during the investigation and in the class-action lawsuit, said their client would be pursuing legal costs from the college under the board’s policies.
Mr. Sivapalan said in a statement he was “humbled” to be re-elected to another term on the board as it tackles important issues. “We are in a time of unprecedented change; change that will shape the future of our profession and the healthcare ecosystem we depend on in Ontario.”