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Six major drug companies can produce generic Oxy despite warnings from doctors, pharmacists, police chiefs and Ontario provincial health officials.

There’s your clue Kens. The six companies are Apotex, Cobalt Pharmaceuticals, Laboratoire Riva and Pharmascience, all Canadian pharmas; as well as Teva Canada and Sandoz, which are notably not US pharmas.

Pharma production is a high growth sector in Canada and was valued at $10 billion in 2011. Canada is the world’s eighth largest pharma market and oxycodone is one of Canada’s top ten selling drugs.

There has been ongoing friction between the two countries, with the US unhappy about Canada selling cheaper generic copies of US branded drugs into the States. The Canadian government typically champions the cause of generics, arguing that use of generics saved the Canadian economy $7 billion in 2010. Generics, of course, are also a nice little earner for Canadian industry. Finally, Canada is already said to benefit economically from the sale of illegal drugs (marijuana and ecstasy) into the US. One might speculate that generic oxycodone will be added to the smugglers' list.

In summary Kens, a cynic might suggest that money and politics count for more than lives.