Tuesday, April 14, 2009

MP calls for independent drug agency following daughter's death

From the Vancouver Sun:
Nine years after vowing to find out why his healthy teenage daughter died while taking a popular prescription drug, a rookie MP is launching a campaign to persuade the Harper government to establish an independent drug safety agency in Canada.

Terence Young, Conservative MP for Oakville, Ont., is making his pitch for the agency in a new book that details his battle with "Big Pharma" and the health agencies and professionals that are charged with protecting patients like his daughter Vanessa.

Next week, he will introduce a motion in the House of Commons, where he hopes MPs from all parties will support his push for drug safety reform.

"This is a non-partisan issue. I will be appealing to all my colleagues in Parliament to create an independent drug agency to deal with these issues and make Canadians safer," Young said in an interview. "It's my goal, my dream, to have a consensus in Parliament to move forward on this."

The MP says his book, Death by Prescription: A Father Takes on his Daughter's Killer - The Multi-Billion-Dollar Pharmaceutical Industry, officially released Tuesday, is the culmination of his efforts to "uncover the truth" about why his 15-year-old daughter's heart stopped and she collapsed before his eyes on March 19, 2000. ...more

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