Canada Drugs otherwise known as CanadaDrugs.com, was an
online pharmacy
An online pharmacy, internet pharmacy, or mail-order pharmacy is a pharmacy that operates over the Internet and sends orders to customers through mail, shipping companies, or online pharmacy web portal.
Online pharmacies include:
* Pharmacy ben ...
based in
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
, Manitoba.
It was started in 2001 by former Manitoba pharmacist Kristjan Thorkelson as an offshoot of a chain of four local pharmacies, called The Prescription Shop, in Winnipeg. With the company being one of the first in the suddenly-growing Canadian internet
mail-order
Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as:
* Sending an order form in the mail
* Placing a telephone call
* Placing a ...
United States government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...
counterfeit
To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...
, unapproved drugs between 2009 and 2012 into the US.
American prosecutors
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
accused the company of having made at least $78 million through illegal imports, including two that were counterfeit versions of the cancer drugs Avastin and Altuzan that had no
active ingredient
An active ingredient is any ingredient that provides biologically active or other direct effect in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease or to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or animals. T ...
s.
Origin
Canada Drugs was started in 2001 by former Manitoba pharmacist Kristjan Thorkelson as an offshoot of a chain of four local pharmacies, called The Prescription Shop, in Winnipeg. With the company being one of the first in the suddenly-growing Canadian internet
mail-order
Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as:
* Sending an order form in the mail
* Placing a telephone call
* Placing a ...
pharmacy industry, Thorkelson was hailed as an "internet pharmacy pioneer."
In addition to Thorkelson, several other fellow graduates of the
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Winnipeg's North End. They went their separate ways by 1994, creating their own new companies that sold prescription drugs online— mostly to Americans.
Illegal importation
On 14 February 2012, the pharmaceutical company
Hoffmann-La Roche
F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX ...
and its U.S. biotech unit
Genentech
Genentech, Inc., is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It became an independent subsidiary of Roche in 2009. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent center within R ...
announced that counterfeits of the cancer drug
Avastin
Bevacizumab, sold under the brand name Avastin among others, is a medication used to treat a number of types of cancers and a specific eye disease. For cancer, it is given by slow injection into a vein (Intravenous therapy, intravenous) and use ...
had been distributed in the United States. The
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food s ...
(FDA) also named Kristjan Thorkelson, Canada Drugs' founder, in the investigation. CanadaDrugs.com, however, issued a statement insisting that it has no connected to the Avastin case because the company does not sell that drug. Meanwhile, in 2013, American Paul Bottomley pleaded guilty in connection with the case.Pauls, Karen. 2017 June 19. 6 Canadians arrested in U.S. extradition request for allegedly selling fake cancer drugs online " ''CBC News''.
In November 2014, United States authorities charged the six Canadian men with
smuggling
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.
There are various ...
goods into the United States,
conspiracy
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...
and international money laundering: Winnipeggers Kristjan Thorkelson, Thomas Haughton, Ronald Sigurdson, Darren Chalus, and Troy Nakamura; and B.C. resident James Trueman. Thorkelson is Canada Drugs' founder; Haughton, Thorkelson's brother-in-law, owned several drug distribution companies in Barbados and the United Kingdom; Sigurdson was listed as a
chief financial officer
The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...
for Canada Drugs; and Chalus and Nakamura were managers of drug sales for several of the companies. Another man, Ram Kamath, was also named in the Canada Drugs charges but had his single charge of smuggling dropped in 2015 in exchange for his cooperation with authorities.
The indictment linked CanadaDrugs.com to the distribution of two lots of counterfeit cancer medications—
Avastin
Bevacizumab, sold under the brand name Avastin among others, is a medication used to treat a number of types of cancers and a specific eye disease. For cancer, it is given by slow injection into a vein (Intravenous therapy, intravenous) and use ...
and Altuzan (the
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
version of the drug)—which had no
active ingredient
An active ingredient is any ingredient that provides biologically active or other direct effect in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease or to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or animals. T ...
s, to medical practices in the United States. It alleged that the company attempted to conceal the issue rather than reporting the supply chain breach to the FDA.
Health Canada
Health Canada (HC; french: Santé Canada, SC)Health Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Health (). is the Structure of the Canadian federal government#Departments, with subsidiary unit ...
suspended CanadaDrugs.com's Drug Establishment Licence in 2014, disabling the company from selling prescription drugs to pharmacies until the department's concerns were addressed. Following a Health Canada "
good manufacturing practice
Current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) are those conforming to the guidelines recommended by relevant agencies. Those agencies control the authorization and licensing of the manufacture and sale of food and beverages, cosmetics, pharmaceutica ...
" inspection, that licence was reinstated on 3 August 2016.
In 2015,
RCMP
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...
officers raided the offices of CanadaDrugs.com in Winnipeg, resulting in assets in one bank account being seized.
In 2015, U.S. government
indicted
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...
Canada Drugs for the
felony
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...
counterfeit
To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...
drugs and other unapproved pharmaceuticals into the United States between 2009 and 2012.U.S. prosecutors accused the men—as well as the company and affiliated companies in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
and
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
—of having made at least $78 million through illegal imports. Prosecutors accused its U.K. affiliate, River East Supplies, of falsifying
customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...
documents to hide the product. The case was handled in
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
, where Canada Drugs bought another company in 2009 for its drug inventory and customer list.
In 2017, the six men were arrested in
Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
and
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
under Canada's ''
Extradition Act
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdic ...
'' on June 14 and 15, respectively. They were subsequently released on
bail
Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required.
In some countries ...
. At this time, CanadaDrugs.com was still operating and was licensed by the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba.
On 13 April 2018, CanadaDrugs.com was sentenced to 5 years probation and to pay $34 million in fines and forfeitures. The company and two overseas
subsidiaries
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a sa ...
agreed to
plead guilty
In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a criminal case under common law using the adversarial system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response ...
to introducing misbranded drugs into
interstate commerce
The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among ...
; the subsidiaries also agreed to plead guilty to selling counterfeit drugs. Thorkelson, agreed to plead guilty to knowing about and concealing a felony crime. He was sentenced to six months
house arrest
In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...
, five years probation, and a $250,000 fine.
CanadaDrugs.com was required to surrender the
domain name
A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
s for the websites it used to illegally sell drugs to Americans, and cease operations on 13 July 2018.
See also
*
Pharmaceutical industry in Canada
The pharmaceutical industry in Canada employs approximately 30,000 people. It supplies about one third of the domestic pharmaceutical consumer market of $27 billion annually. This accounts for ~16% of yearly health expenditures. Canada had a pharm ...
*
Canadian International Pharmacy Association Established in 2002, the Canadian International Pharmacy Association ("CIPA") is a Canadian association of licensed pharmacy businesses offering mail order pharmacy services to Canadian and international patients. CIPA members sell pharmaceuticals ...