An Edmonton fertility doctor who admitted to participating in a drug addiction scheme for more than two years will pay a $5,000 fine and serve a temporary license suspension, following a University of Alberta hearing last week.
In a 2021 letter, Dr. Tarek Motan told patients who saw him between August 2015 and November 2017 that while he was working in the fertility clinic at Lois Hole Hospital for Women, he had engaged in financial deals with three pharmaceutical companies.
He said in the letter that he paid for fertility drugs, such as Gonal-F, Puregon and Menopur without authorization and approval from Alberta Health Services (AHS) or the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) – the provincial regulator – and placed the cash rebate he received into an account he submitted for education.
Motan apologized to patients in the letter, saying he sometimes prescribed higher doses of the drugs because he believed it would help them but said it may have put some of them at risk of side effects.
The doctor admitted failing to comply with the university’s conflict of interest practices by accepting rebate payments, referring patients to Glengarry Pharmacy, which received part of the rebates, and failing to inform (and obtain informed consent from) patients about them.
At a CPSA mock hearing on Thursday morning, the court accepted his admissions, which amounted to unprofessional conduct.
Craig Boyer, an attorney for the university’s chief grievance officer, told the hearing that Motan did not recognize that what he was doing at the time was a conflict of interest violation.
He also said that the doctor did not spend the money on himself but kept the funds in a bank account.
“He didn’t go out and buy a race car or anything like that,” Boyer said.
Penalties
Boyer made a joint motion for sanctions, negotiated with Motan’s attorney, that include a six-month license suspension and a $5,000 fine.
These were consistent with penalties imposed in similar cases, Boyer said.
He said that as part of the joint filing, Motan could either use the rebate money to settle a class-action lawsuit it faces or donate it (without receiving a tax receipt).
Motan would also be responsible for paying half the costs of the investigation and hearing into his conduct.
The doctor’s lawyer, James Heelan of Bennett Jones LLP, told the hearing court that his client was “deeply embarrassed by the situation he finds himself in” and “continually expresses great regret” over the mishandling of the conflict of interest.
He said Motan had already served an AHS ban, which left three-and-a-half months to remain, undergoing “a lot of media scrutiny” and taking ethics training.
He also said a supervisory review of patient complaints found no clinical concerns.
Since uninsured IVF services at the women’s clinic ended in 2017, Motan has continued to work in hospitals, serving patients who cannot afford private fertility services, Heelan said.
Heelan said collective sanctions are fair.
“It is clear that he will be severely punished for his conduct,” he said.
The district court agreed to the submission of sanctions and a written decision is pending.
CBC News contacted Motan on Friday through his lawyer but did not receive a response.
In 2021, the Alberta College of Pharmacy told CBC News that it received a complaint in 2019 about the owner of Glengarry Pharmacy and an investigation was completed in January 2020.
A spokesperson for the university said at the time that the pharmacist acknowledged their conduct in the matter.
The spokesman said the university required changes to the pharmacist’s conduct and to the operation of the pharmacy to ensure the protection of the public.
Class action
A proposed class action was filed against Motan, his company, the pharmacy and the pharmacist in March 2023.
An amended statement of claim filed in Edmonton Court of King’s Bench in April 2023 said the class members — women treated by Motan for fertility problems between August 2014 and November 2018 — were subjected to unnecessary and inappropriate medical treatment and prescription drugs.
The claim said that because class members were prescribed “excessive doses” of fertility drugs, they experienced adverse health effects, including ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.
Plaintiff Shannon Frew, on behalf of all class members, is seeking $5 million in damages.
Frew told CBC News on Monday that she was disappointed that the class-action lawsuit was mentioned in the hearing “without giving any real context to its seriousness.”
A statement of defense has not been filed and no claims have been proven in court.
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