Allan Oberman Elected Chair of Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association
Toronto, January 15, 2007 – The Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association (CGPA) is pleased to announce the election of Allan Oberman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Novopharm, as Chair of CGPA.
Mr. Oberman is a member of CGPA’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors and, until becoming Chair, fulfilled the role of Vice Chair of CGPA.
“I look forward to working closely with all stakeholders, including governments across Canada and the pharmacy community, to ensure Canadians have access to high-quality, affordable prescription medicines,” said Mr. Oberman.
“Prescription drug expenditure continues to be one of the fastest rising costs in health care. By increasing the use of lower-cost generic medicines, we can help preserve the public and private drug benefit plans upon which so many Canadians, particularly seniors, rely,” Mr. Oberman said. “In fact, if the use of generic drugs in Canada increased to levels in the United States, it would save Canada’s health-care system up to $500-million in the first year alone.”
In a career spanning more than 25 years, Mr. Oberman was previously the President of Bestfoods Canada and held senior management positions at Pillsbury Canada.
Novopharm Limited is one of Canada’s oldest and largest generic pharmaceutical companies. In 2000, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries acquired Ontario-based Novopharm making Teva the largest generic pharmaceutical company in the world.
About the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association
The Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association (CGPA) represents Canada’s generic drug industry – a dynamic group of companies that specialize in the production of high quality, affordable generic drugs and fine chemicals and in conducting the clinical trials required for government approval of generic drugs. The industry plays an important role in controlling health-care costs in Canada. Generic drugs are dispensed to fill 44 per cent of all prescriptions but account for less than 18 per cent of the $17.5-billion Canadians spend annually on prescription medicines.
