If you gave a specific example *from the Macleans article* of how he “stalled the process” it might be helpful in proving your point.
Because I don’t recall it mentioned that Barry was ever convicted of “skirting the law” for decades or at all, for that matter.
Sherman’s fortune was built on his canny ability to push systems to their limits—and occasionally beyond, as reflected in a litany of controversies over his political donations, his lobbying and his role in the country’s biggest medical research scandal, a tale helped inspire John le Carré’s novel
The Constant Gardener.
Sherman, on his own and through his companies, was the country’s most active litigant, a man who used the courts as readily as others use the subway. Even as politicians paid tribute to him after his death, his company was locked in legal battles with their governments on multiple fronts.
Sherman railed against “incompetent” bureaucrats who had the audacity to disagree with
his interpretations of federal drug law—and he dragged them to court, too.
In Federal Court alone, Apotex has launched more than 1,200 legal actions, including 83 against Health Canada since 1990. A ministry spokesman says
“because of the high volume of cases,” officials can’t even begin to calculate how many millions Sherman’s litigation has cost Canadian taxpayers.
“He was a disruptor,” says Michele Brill-Edwards, a physician who served as head of drug approvals at Health Canada between 1987 and 1992.
“He was the guy who said: ‘I don’t have to play the game the way everyone plays it.’ It was intimidating to come back from lunch and find an urgent memo on your desk saying you’ve got to get over to Federal Court because Sherman was at it again.” His approach with the health regulator, in particular, broke with past practice among drug-makers, who had typically tried to ingratiate themselves.
“The sort of gentlemanly way of doing business changed [with Sherman],” says Brill-Edwards.
“He quickly demonstrated that in fact you can bully the government and you can intimidate.”
He was certainly willing to play the long game if that’s what it took. One particular spat with Health Canada—a 30-year odyssey over a knock-off of trazodone, an antidepressant—finally came down in Sherman’s favour last April, when the Federal Court of Appeal ruled Ottawa was indeed negligent in its handling of Apotex’s application. “For Barry, it wasn’t about the money,” says Bruce Clark, Apotex’s former senior vice-president of scientific and regulatory affairs. “Money is just how you keep score.”