An Edmonton fertility doctor who admitted to participating in a drug kickback scheme for more than two years will pay a $5,000 fine and serve a temporary practice permit suspension, following a College of Physicians and Surgeons 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 at the fertility clinic at the Lois Hole Hospital for Women, he had participated in a financial rebate arrangement 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 AHS or the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) — the provincial regulator — and put the monetary rebates he received into an account that he administered for education.
Motan apologized to patients in the letter and said he sometimes prescribed higher doses of the drugs, believing it would help them but saying it may have put some of them at risk of adverse effects.
The doctor admitted to failing to comply with the college’s standard of practice regarding conflict of interest, by accepting rebate payments, referring patients to Glengarry Pharmacy, which received a portion of the rebates, and failing to inform (and receive informed consent from) patients about them.
During the virtual CPSA hearing on Thursday morning, a tribunal accepted his admissions, which amounted to unprofessional conduct.
Craig Boyer, legal counsel for the college’s complaints director, said during the hearing that Dr. Motan did not appreciate what he was doing at the time was breaching of the conflict of interest standard.
He also said 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 something like that,” Boyer said.
Sanctions
Boyer presented a joint submission on sanctions, negotiated with Motan’s lawyer, that includes a six-month practice permit suspension and a $5,000 fine.
These were in line with sanctions imposed in similar cases, Boyer said.
He said as part of the joint submission, Motan could either use the rebate money to settle a class-action lawsuit he is facing or donate it (without receiving a tax receipt).
Motan would also be responsible for paying half of the costs of the investigation and hearing into his conduct.
The doctor’s lawyer, James Heelan of Bennett Jones LLP, told the hearing tribunal his client is “deeply embarrassed by the circumstances he finds himself in” and “continually expressed deep regret” over mishandling the conflict of interest.
He said Dr. Motan already served an AHS suspension, leaving three and a half months to serve further, underwent “intense media scrutiny” and took ethics training.
He also said a regulatory review of patients’ complaints found no clinical concerns.
Since the non-insured IVF services at the women’s clinic ceased in 2017, Dr. Motan has remained working in a hospital setting, serving patients who cannot afford private fertility care, Heelan said.
Heelan said the joint sanctions submission was reasonable.
“It is clear that he will be significantly punished for his conduct,” he said.
The hearing tribunal agreed with the submission on sanctions and a written decision is forthcoming.
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 it received a complaint in 2019 about Glengarry Pharmacy’s owner and an investigation concluded in January 2020.
The college’s spokesperson said at the time that the pharmacist acknowledged their conduct in the matter.
The spokesperson said the college required changes in the pharmacist’s conduct and in the operation of the pharmacy to ensure the public was protected.
Class-action lawsuit
A proposed class-action lawsuit was launched against Motan, his corporation, the pharmacy, and a pharmacist in March 2023.
An amended statement of claim filed with the Edmonton Court of King’s Bench in April 2023 said class members — women who were treated by Dr. Motan for fertility issues between August 2014 and November 2018 — were subjected to unnecessary and improper medical treatment and drug prescription.
The claim said because class members were prescribed “excessive doses” of fertility medications, 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 the class-action lawsuit was mentioned in the hearing “without providing any real context to the severity of it.”
A statement of defence has not been filed and none of the claims have been proven in court.