The story of Joe Volpe playing some sort of inverted Santa Claus and accepting gifts from children is interesting:

The national Liberal Party said yesterday it has no reason to investigate donations to leadership candidate Joe Volpe from current and former executives of a generic drug firm and their relatives, but some Liberal MPs said they have qualms about accepting money from minors.

Mr. Volpe has received donations of $5,400 each from five current and former executives of Apotex Inc. and 15 of their relatives, including some who are under 18.

But the real interesting thing here is not that Volpe and his supporters are playing fast and loose with the rules. It's about who is giving the money:

Apotex chairman Barry Sherman, his wife Honey, and four of his children each donated $5,400, as did Apotex president Jack Kay, his wife Patricia, and two of his children.

A former vice-president of Apotex, Allen Shechtman, his wife Mary, and three of his children, also donated $5,400. Mr. Shechtman told The Globe on Monday that not all of the donors are adults, but did not specify their ages. He did not return a telephone call yesterday.

Bernard "Barry" Sherman of Apotex is a well known name. Apotex is a maker of generic drugs, and as such, is involved in intense lobbying. "Intense" is definitely a word used to describe Barry Sherman:

Sherman's tactics have made him infamous in the industry. Everyone has a Barry Sherman story. His associates praise his brilliance and integrity. His detractors say he has a chip on his shoulder, that he's paranoid, bombastic, opportunistic. Paul Lucas, president of Glaxo Wellcome Inc., the Canadian arm of Glaxo Wellcome PLC, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, calls Sherman's conspiracy theories "ludicrous." Apotex and Novopharm together control the Canadian generic market in what amounts to an oligopoly, Lucas argues. Even Dan [Leslie Dan, the chairman of the generic goliath Novopharm Ltd], who juggles his personal dislike for Sherman with the interests they share as independent generic manufacturers, says Sherman's litigious, bulldog approach has not been constructive for the sector.

Physician and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Morton Shulman, who has tussled with Apotex several times over the years, has called Sherman "the only person I have ever met with no redeeming features whatsoever."

Nice company Volpe keeps. To be fair, Sherman has some choice words for his competitors too, and as a generic drug manufacturer, his products, which can sell for nearly 20% less than the brand name drugs, have saved the health care system millions.

But then, profitability is what drives the big multi-nationals to find new drugs.

Still, Sherman is more than just a guy looking to make more affordable drugs. He pushes the envelope and gets in trouble for it. Remember that fellow Shechtman who also gave money to Volpe (along with his wife and his three kids, not all of whom were adults)? Shechtman was described as a former VP of Apotex. So two families are donating to Volpe?

Turns out it is the same family, and that Shechtman and Sherman are as close as only two guys who have had run-ins with the FBI can be:

There was also that small clash with the FBI and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over a mail-order scheme Sherman engaged in with his brother-in-law, Allen Shechtman. It involved a Bahamas-based company called Medicine Club International Inc., which mailed Apotex-manufactured generic drugs, including generic Prozac and Deprenyl, from Canada to 500,000 households in the United States without prescription. The FBI was allegedly tipped off by U.S. drug manufacturers, no fans of Sherman.

In 1995, Medicine Club pleaded guilty to one count of illegal interstate commerce and was fined $500,000 (U.S.) for selling drugs without approval. It was also forced to pay $339,000 for investigative costs.

So Shechtman and Sherman are brothers-in-law and partners in crime. Eleven members of this extended family has signed cheques to Volpe for $5,400 each.

For a guy who is so hyper-sensitive to jokes relating the Liberals to organized crime, Joe Volpe really doesn't make an effort to avoid the whole "crime family" thing.

But back to the issue of generic drugs and patent protection. Do you think Joe Volpe is going to promote a particular position when it comes to generic drugs?

Bill C-91 was passed by the Mulroney Conservatives in 1993, and it extended patent protection for name brand drugs to twenty years. In part, it was done as a realignment of Canadian laws to meet NAFTA obligations. The Liberals opposed the legislation intensely. True to form, though, when they formed the government in 1993, the Liberals became strong supporters of C-91. This was because the name brand manufacturers are headquartered in Quebec, and any law that guaranteed their profitability was a sure vote-getter in Quebec.

Principles be dammed when votes are to be had, right?

C-91 required that the effect of the new law be reviewed in 1997. By then the Liberals were in power, and so had an opportunity to kill the bill and make it easier for Canadian generic drug manufacturers to make their knock-offs.

The review in 1997 was conducted by David Dingwall, then the Minister of Health, and the end result is that C-91 is still the law of the land today.

Of course, we all remember David Dingwall for getting in trouble in 2005 for accepting $350,000 in continency fees as a lobbyist from Bioniche. Bioniche is, as it turns out, a pharmaceutical company with original discoveries to protect, including drug discoveries.

I'm not passing judgment on C-91. But the money involved in the realm of pharmaceutical patents is huge, and it looks like the players are shopping for potential ministers and prime ministers that can be counted upon to push their side of the debate. And these people are not satisfied with the ethical or financial strengths of their positions -- the stakes are too great. They are willing to throw lots of money around to make sure the right people are convinced the the righteousness of their position.

Liberal David Dingwall was a friend of the name-brand manufacturers, and was caught pulling a $350,000 cookie out of the cookie jar.

Today it looks like the generic drug manufacturers have found another Liberal, leadership candidate Joe Volpe, willing to argue the other side.

Seems like there are no right answers, or even principled positions, when it comes to the Liberal Party. On any issue, you are likely to find a senior member of the party who will take up your cause -- for consideration, of course. And when you don't have principles, accepting money from children is easy.

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