Local pharmaceutical firm fighting uphill battle against foreign competition
Biolyse Pharma of St. Catharines wants some answers.
The company lost a bid on a contract for the supply of a cancer drug to southern Ontario cancer centres — and can’t figure out why.
Multinational firm Accord Healthcare Ltd. won the contract to supply the drug Paclitaxel.
Medbuy, a London, Ont.-based hospital buying group, handled the bidding process.
The three-year contract is worth more than $1 million, depending on volumes.
“We are not only fighting the loss of the contract, which is a bummer, but I’m worried about the future,” said Biolyse production manager Claude Mercure. “No matter what sterile drug we introduce, we are competing against companies (from outside Canada). These decisions make it hard for us. We make a vital and essential medicine for Canadians.”
Doctors use Paclitaxel in the treatment of breast, ovarian and lung cancers. Biolyse supplies it to hospitals across the country, but its profit margins have shrunk in the face of international competition.
“We are still the dominant seller of this drug in Canada, but foreign producers are now allowed to sell injectable, sterile drugs in Canada,” Mercure said. “We need more of a market share to keep going. It’s a simple as that. It’s economics.
“We have invested millions of dollars here in Canada, and that isn’t considered in the process. You need to develop the knowledge and skill to run a place like this. You don’t want to just throw it out the door.”
Lesley Cornelius, director of business development and communications for Medbuy, said many factors play a role in procurement decisions.
Medbuy bases its decisions on consultation with its health-care organizations, who play an active part in scoring the proposals, she said. The process also follows guidelines set out by Ontario’s Broader Public Sector Procurement Directive.
“Medbuy treats all suppliers in a fair and equitable manner through the competitive bid process run on behalf of our members,” she said.
Cornelius said Medbuy also offers all their suppliers the opportunity to request a formal debriefing.
Medbuy has a meeting scheduled with Biolyse next week, she added.
“We want the public to know about this,” Biolyse president Brigitte Kiecken said. “Somewhere along the line, cancer touches all of us.
“We don’t send salesmen to try and charm people. It’s a medicine that is used for chemotherapy to treat people with cancer. It’s not something you should be peddling.”
She said Bioylse has also had to supply the drug when other company’s supplies have run out. It’s happened four times.
“If Biolyse weren’t here, there would have been a big problem, Canada-wide,” she said. “We can’t be here just as their reliable backup. How to you say to a patient, we don’t have the drug for you?”
John Fulton, who handles public relations for Biolyse, said local politicians need to get behind the company.
“We need our MP and our MPPs to stick their neck out,” he said. “We need a level playing field. This company stumbled into Niagara, is one of the only facilities in Canada doing this work. We are so lucky.
“We talk about innovating and forming roundtables to discuss how to get the economy in Niagara going. It is happening right here. Let’s do everything we can to get this one to work before we bring more in.”
Dr. Jacalyn Duffin of Queen’s University medical school in Kingston runs a website that tracks drug shortages in Canada.
She said the government should be doing all it can to support companies such as Biolyse.
“I’m given a little bit to conspiracy theories when it comes to ‘Big P harm a’ and I suspect there is a bunch of lobbying going on in Ottawa,” she said. “The great big companies can afford lawyers and add people to do that sort of thing.
“Canada needs more companies like Biolyse. I don’t understand why, with the human and intellectual capital we have in this country, not to mention the financial capital, that we don’t just get busy and start making our generic drugs ourselves.
“We shouldn’t be buffeted about by shortages that are caused by international companies that aren’t based in Canada. Biolyse should be the hero. I’m worried that they may just give up someday,” Duffin said.
Two years ago, Biolyse had about 60 employees working in its St. Catharines facility. It is down to about 25.
“In the last two years we have lost between $300,000 and $375,000 a year,” Mercure said. “We can support it, but even with this contract we would have still lost some money, but it will be a little less.
“The contract was really important. We were counting on it. If this trend continues, there will be no pharmaceuticals in Canada in the next 10 years.”