$21,500 fine for $242K in kickbacks: Another ex-partner of Quebec's deposed 'king of pharmacy' sees sanctions

A Quebec pharmacist who accepted almost $242,000 in discounts, rebates and payments for statistical patient data from a wholesaler and two drug manufacturers has been hit with fines totalling $21,500. Laurie Pelletier-Tremblay, a pharmacy owner, under Uniprix's banner, of a pharmacy located in the province’s Lac-Saint-Jean region, was found guilty of all three charges filed against her by the Ordre des pharmaciens du Québec. She adds to the list of about 20 pharmacy owners sanctioned over the last two years in relation to the case of Quebec’s deposed “king of pharmacy,” Jonathan-Yan Perreault, who had built an empire of about 40 pharmacies under the Uniprix and Proxim banners, most of which he acquired with an associate. In 2017, Perreault was suspended from pharmacy practice for almost 32 years after he was found guilty of 60 charges that included illegal kickbacks and fraudulently billing the province’s health insurance plan. Read: Quebec pharmacy-owner king dethroned by charges In the case of Pelletier-Tremblay, the disciplinary council ruled in November that the pharmacist had accepted advantages which were in breach of the profession’s code of ethics. According to the decision document, between November 2012 and November 2015 Pelletier-Tremblay had illegally accepted approximately $213,576 from the wholesaler McKesson Canada as a discount on the purchase of drugs through a compliance program. Between September 2014 and March 2018, she illegally accepted about $18,636 from the generic drug manufacturer Apotex Inc., in exchange for statistical data on her patients’ use of pharmaceutical products and socio-demographic information. Pelletier-Tremblay had, according to the discipline document, also received just over $9,700 in illegal payments from the drug manufacturer Actavis as a rebate on the purchase of medications. All three offences were a breach of the province’s code of ethics of pharmacists, which stipulate under Article 50 that pharmacists must not accept any benefit relating to the practice of pharmacy outside their normal remuneration, and other than a customary thank-you or gift of modest value. Pelletier-Tremblay, who bought out Perreault’s shares and became sole owner of her pharmacy in 2018, told the disciplinary council that she did not participate in discussions related to the implementation of McKesson’s compliance program, or in negotiations over the agreements with Apotex and Actavis. She said that she didn’t know she had been doing anything illegal because the contracts were all verified by lawyers. The disciplinary council imposed a fine of $12,500 for the charge involving the McKesson program, $5,000 for the charge related to Apotex, and $4,000 for the charge related to Actavis. Read: JUDGEMENT: Pharmacists who got exclusive referrals from compassionate program should have known this was unfair

$21,500 fine for $242K in kickbacks: Another ex-partner of Quebec's deposed 'king of pharmacy' sees sanctions

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