Pharmacist denies allegations of misconduct in overdose case

A pharmacist is defending himself against allegations of misconduct involving the administration of the drug naloxone to a patient experiencing an overdose in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

In 2017, Amin Janmohamed was sued by the Labpharma pharmacy, where he had been a director and manager, over an incident that occurred in January 2013 at OnSite, a treatment facility on the second floor above the InSite supervised-injection site on East Hastings Street.

According to the pharmacy, Janmohamed used an unapproved device to administer a naloxone nasal spray to a patient who has not been identified. The patient had a “severe reaction” and had to be hospitalized.

The pharmacy lawsuit claimed that Janmohamed told an official with the Portland Hotel Society, which is responsible for InSite, that his conduct was not wrongful because use of the device had been authorized by Dr. Ron Joe, a prominent physician in the addictions treatment and harm reduction community.

Joe denied the claim that the use of the device and drug had been authorized by him, according to the suit.

In a response to the lawsuit, Janmohamed said that following a meeting in December 2012 with a number of officials, including Joe, he created a naloxone nasal spray that was less voluminous than the one in use at the time.

Janmohamed said that following the application of the spray to the patient at InSite in 2013, the patient reacted in a manner that was consistent with opioid withdrawal.

“This was an expected reaction. The naloxone displaces opioids and puts the overdosing person into instant withdrawal. If non-opioid illicit drugs are present, the individ- ual may suffer unexpected reactions, although this cannot be predicted when a patient is suffering from a serious overdose.”

In his response, Janmohamed said that he followed medical protocol and recommended the patient be sent to the hospital for observation.

He said that complaints lodged against him to a number of health agencies and professional bodies related to the 2013 incident and other subjects were “inaccurate” and “unwarranted” and he retained a lawyer to defend himself with the defence of those claims being successful.

The pharmacy’s lawsuit is seeking to recover damages in the amount of $265,000 arising from a Health Ministry audit that was conducted on the pharmacy.

The case is scheduled to go to trial in May.