Health Canada Has Adderall XR Teleconference Same Day as Press Release. Hiding Something?

Found an online press release for a teleconference with Marc Berthiaume, Director of the Marketed Pharmaceuticals Division of the Marketed Health Products Directorate of Health Canada on Adderall XR which has recently been put back on the market after suspending it in February 2005, in a controversial move.

I.e., it was supposedly pulled of the market for adverse cardiac events i.e. heart attack and sudden death when the death rate in the general population NOT taking Adderall XR was apparently higher. see my previous post.

The press release is dated August 24th and the teleconference is August 24th.

Wow. It looks like someone made a mistake on the dates, or poor planning, or the press release or is pretending to seem like they’re available for questioning from the media when they’re really trying to avoid it, i.e., same day notice, not even 1 day’s advance notice?

Here’s the release from the CNW Group site (now deleted was at

Notice to the media – Health Canada

OTTAWA, Aug. 24 /CNW Telbec/ – Dr. Marc Berthiaume, Director of the Marketed Pharmaceuticals Division of the Marketed Health Products Directorate, will be available by teleconference to answer questions from the media regarding Adderall XR (R), a drug prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Date
—-
Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Time
—-
3: 30 p.m.

Teleconference number
———————
800-814-4859
password: Adderall

For further information: Media Inquiries: Jirina Vlk, Health Canada, (613) 957-2988

I know I’m in a bit of a glass house, I’ve done last minute press release’s, but not to bury a story or avoid people asking embarrassing questions while pretending to be open. For me, it’s more likely to do with being overloaded and procrastinating.

I don’t know for certain, but this seems damn suspicious. I googled “Marc Berthiaume” adderall teleconference to see who else had the notice up and only had a few sites mainly aggregators and mainly the day or days after the press release. Was it ignored, or just not well distributed? The info on the reinstatement sure had a lot of coverage in Canada and the US.

Health Canada who took the drug off the market because of data from the US not Canada, and the US FDA didn’t pull the drugs and top Canadian ADD researchers on ADD said they weren’t consulted before the drug was pulled and didn’t think it should have been pulled.

Announcing a teleconference the same day it’s happening? Can anyone who’s in the media tell me if this is normal practice?

Or is Health Canada hiding something?