Chemo IV drugs werent properly labelled, firm says

Executivesfrom Medbuy, the company that arranged hospitals'contracts for intravenous chemotherapy drugs, told an Ontario legislature committee thatthe labels on the IV bags didn't accurately describe the contents.

The executivestestifiedMonday atOntario'sstanding committee on social policy, which is lookinginto diluted chemotherapy treatments given to about 1,200 cancer patientsin Ontario and New Brunswick.

Medbuy, a London, Ont.-based group purchasing organization,works with hospitals to reduce the cost of their health-care supplies, such asmedication andsurgical masks.

Until Monday, no one from the company had spoken publicly about its role as a broker between fivehospitals including four in Ontario and one in New Brunswick and Marchese Hospital Solutions, which won a contract to produceintravenous chemotherapymixtures.

Last week,Marita Zaffiro, the president of Marchese Hospital Solutions, which supplied the chemotherapy drugs cyclophosphamide and gemcitabine, testified that the chemo was made according to Medbuy'scontract.

The four Ontario hospitals have told members ofthestanding committee on social policy at Queen's Park that they usedthe IV bagsof chemotherapy for multiple patients.

Zaffiro said her company believed eachbag was intended for a single patient, so any excess saline would not result in an overdilution.

Hospitals have said that Marchese'sbags were labeled with the volume and amount of drug only.

Kent Nicholson, CEO of Medbuy, and Michael Blanchard, the company's vice-president of pharmacy, testified Monday, withBlanchardsayingthe problem is that the bags' labels from Marchese did not accurately describe the contents.

"This particular issue could have been avoided had the label correctly indicated what was the contents of the bags. Their ability toadmixis not in question," Nicholson told reportersafter the hearing.

"If the label had accurately described what was in the bag, we would not have had an issue here."

Nicholsonsaidthe bags contained moregemcitabine four grams of it than would be given to a single patient, adding that a qualified pharmacist would know that.

Admixing isthe bulk mixing or compounding of drugs for multiple patients,who may be in different locations, without individual prescriptions.

Previously, the committee heard that Medbuy boughtthe chemotherapy treatments from Marchese Hospital Solutions of Mississauga, which won the contract from longtime supplier Baxter in late 2011 after a public bidding process.

MPPs have been asking hospital staffersand health ministry officialsabout theregulatory grey zonesurrounding Marchese Hospital Solutions' mixing services, which was not accredited by the Ontario College of Pharmacists.

Health Canada andthe provinces and territories are working to improve oversight, including inspections of companies like Marchese Hospital Solutions that aren't federally licensed as manufacturers or provincially accredited as pharmacies, while they look for a long-term solution.

A "communication issue" at the hospitals contributed to the overdilution issue, Zaffiro said.

The communication issue isseparate from the questions about federal and provincial jurisdiction.