I’ve just had a look at A Review of the Oncology Under-Dosing Incident by Jake J. Thiessen, Ph.D. … the report on the chemotherapy scandal in which neither hospitals nor purchasing agents made the slightest effort to determine just what it was they were buying or had bought.
What a whitewash.
The early days of the incident began with the discovery of a questionable MHS GEMCITABINE product on March 20, 2013 at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.
This, of course, is bullshit. The early days of the incident began with the tendering of the contract to supply the drug. The contract was incompetently drafted and handling of the delivered materials was also incompetent. He didn’t address (or even acknowledge) the kickback negotiated as part of the contract.
As a former chemist, the part I like best is:
The clear difference factor in bulk reconstitution preparation lies in the overfill within the normal saline bags used in hospitals and by MHS. That is, although a bag may be nominally labeled to contain 100, 250, 500 or 1000 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride, the actual volume may be somewhat larger. Such overfill is widely known and is not limited to diluents. For example, Baxter had declared its overfill (shown in Appendix 4). Both the GPO and MHS were apparently aware of such overfills. The degree of overfill is not standardized; it becomes part of a manufacturer’s finished product specifications. The reason for this overfill is that the fluid bags are to some extent permeable to water. That is, water can move through the membrane and then evaporate from the outside surface. On storage, the contents of the bags can thereby decrease. The product’s shelf life is defined by the length of time it would normally take before the contents are reduced to the aforementioned nominal contents (e.g., 100 mL) on the label. Obviously, the rate of loss is determined by the permeability of the bag, fluid volume to surface ratio, and the storage conditions. This influences both the overfill variability used by a manufacturer and the contents determined at any point in time
So it is known that the concentration of active material in the bags will increase over time, but the clowndorks in charge of preparing medication for administration use the bags as a source of stock solution at the concentration shown on the label.
Don’t get sick in Ontari-ari-ari-o.
As a nod to the ostensible subject of this blog (Canadian preferred shares. Remember?) I’ll highlight Assiduous Reader adrian2‘s trip down memory lane to May, 2008, when we were all trying to figure out just what these funny new Fixed-Reset thingamajigs were all about.
It was another day of sickness in the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts off 1bp, FixedResets down 16bp and DeemedRetractibles losing 19bp. The Performance Highlights table is again very lengthy, but with no obvious patterns. Volume was high.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.1167 % | 2,638.1 |
| FixedFloater | 4.26 % | 3.55 % | 32,548 | 18.27 | 1 | -2.7451 % | 3,901.4 |
| Floater | 2.55 % | 2.83 % | 74,235 | 20.14 | 5 | 0.1167 % | 2,848.5 |
| OpRet | 4.62 % | 3.35 % | 76,748 | 0.63 | 3 | -0.3069 % | 2,612.4 |
| SplitShare | 4.68 % | 4.73 % | 55,902 | 4.14 | 6 | -0.2023 % | 2,960.7 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.3069 % | 2,388.7 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.70 % | 5.61 % | 91,805 | 14.13 | 12 | -0.3100 % | 2,269.3 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.52 % | 5.64 % | 155,036 | 14.43 | 25 | -0.0096 % | 2,335.3 |
| FixedReset | 5.01 % | 3.90 % | 234,720 | 4.16 | 85 | -0.1571 % | 2,437.5 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.18 % | 5.12 % | 181,244 | 6.99 | 43 | -0.1913 % | 2,334.1 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| BAM.PR.G | FixedFloater | -2.75 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 22.67 Evaluated at bid price : 22.32 Bid-YTW : 3.55 % |
| PWF.PR.O | Perpetual-Premium | -2.65 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 24.54 Evaluated at bid price : 25.01 Bid-YTW : 5.82 % |
| BMO.PR.M | FixedReset | -1.81 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.40 Bid-YTW : 3.80 % |
| GWO.PR.Q | Deemed-Retractible | -1.80 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.96 Bid-YTW : 5.75 % |
| TRP.PR.B | FixedReset | -1.55 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 21.31 Evaluated at bid price : 21.61 Bid-YTW : 3.67 % |
| SLF.PR.G | FixedReset | -1.47 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.50 Bid-YTW : 4.14 % |
| W.PR.H | Perpetual-Discount | -1.42 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 23.33 Evaluated at bid price : 23.61 Bid-YTW : 5.88 % |
| RY.PR.C | Deemed-Retractible | -1.39 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.11 Bid-YTW : 5.12 % |
| MFC.PR.F | FixedReset | -1.25 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.73 Bid-YTW : 4.12 % |
| PWF.PR.L | Perpetual-Discount | -1.18 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 22.25 Evaluated at bid price : 22.57 Bid-YTW : 5.68 % |
| BAM.PR.N | Perpetual-Discount | -1.15 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 20.59 Evaluated at bid price : 20.59 Bid-YTW : 5.85 % |
| BAM.PF.D | Perpetual-Discount | -1.15 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 21.51 Evaluated at bid price : 21.51 Bid-YTW : 5.80 % |
| BAM.PR.Z | FixedReset | -1.06 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 23.29 Evaluated at bid price : 25.25 Bid-YTW : 4.65 % |
| BNS.PR.K | Deemed-Retractible | -1.01 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.40 Bid-YTW : 5.20 % |
| BNS.PR.Z | FixedReset | 1.03 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.47 Bid-YTW : 4.21 % |
| POW.PR.B | Perpetual-Discount | 1.15 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 23.43 Evaluated at bid price : 23.72 Bid-YTW : 5.69 % |
| PWF.PR.M | FixedReset | 1.23 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.56 Bid-YTW : 1.58 % |
| FTS.PR.F | Perpetual-Discount | 1.30 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 22.94 Evaluated at bid price : 23.32 Bid-YTW : 5.33 % |
| PWF.PR.S | Perpetual-Discount | 1.38 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 21.71 Evaluated at bid price : 22.00 Bid-YTW : 5.48 % |
| MFC.PR.C | Deemed-Retractible | 1.61 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 21.42 Bid-YTW : 6.39 % |
| BAM.PF.A | FixedReset | 1.98 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 23.08 Evaluated at bid price : 24.78 Bid-YTW : 4.63 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| TD.PR.T | FixedReset | 57,170 | Recently converted FloatingReset. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2018-07-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.15 Bid-YTW : 2.37 % |
| GWO.PR.M | Deemed-Retractible | 54,524 | TD crossed 50,000 at 25.75. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2019-03-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.58 Bid-YTW : 5.49 % |
| RY.PR.T | FixedReset | 53,639 | Scotia crossed 50,000 at 25.87. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-08-24 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.75 Bid-YTW : 3.08 % |
| PWF.PR.S | Perpetual-Discount | 41,602 | TD crossed 10,000 at 22.00. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 21.71 Evaluated at bid price : 22.00 Bid-YTW : 5.48 % |
| BAM.PF.C | Perpetual-Discount | 38,618 | RBC crossed 24,300 at 20.90. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2043-08-08 Maturity Price : 20.88 Evaluated at bid price : 20.88 Bid-YTW : 5.89 % |
| BNS.PR.A | FixedReset | 37,772 | RBC crossed 22,000 at 26.08. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2013-09-07 Maturity Price : 25.50 Evaluated at bid price : 26.03 Bid-YTW : -23.54 % |
| There were 46 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| PWF.PR.O | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 25.01 – 25.87 Spot Rate : 0.8600 Average : 0.5094 YTW SCENARIO |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | Quote: 24.10 – 24.95 Spot Rate : 0.8500 Average : 0.6043 YTW SCENARIO |
| TRP.PR.B | FixedReset | Quote: 21.61 – 22.00 Spot Rate : 0.3900 Average : 0.2445 YTW SCENARIO |
| TCA.PR.Y | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 49.85 – 50.40 Spot Rate : 0.5500 Average : 0.4133 YTW SCENARIO |
| CU.PR.C | FixedReset | Quote: 24.66 – 25.10 Spot Rate : 0.4400 Average : 0.3041 YTW SCENARIO |
| BMO.PR.Q | FixedReset | Quote: 24.30 – 24.63 Spot Rate : 0.3300 Average : 0.2065 YTW SCENARIO |