With regard to the Sherman murders, this is interesting, just posted today.
Supreme Court rules in favour of unsealing Sherman estate files
Barry Sherman, the billionaire chairman and CEO of pharmaceutical firm Apotex Inc., was found dead with his wife in their house on Dec. 15, 2017, two days after the homicides. The couple were philanthropists and well-known members of Toronto society, sparking intense interest in their deaths and the resulting police investigation.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/supreme-court-sherman-estate-ruling-1.6062041
||Jan 05, 2021|| Barry Sherman, 75, the founder and chairman of the board of generic drug giant Apotex, and his 70-year-old wife, Honey, were found dead in the basement pool area of their home on Old Colony Rd. in Toronto's North York neighbourhood on Dec. 15, 2017***
My interest in this murder story is purely speculative and circumstantial... still, it addresses possible motive and subsequent consequence.
China is now the major supplier of prescription drugs in the Western Hemisphere. Lately China has been taking advantage of that situation by hiking the price on some drugs. Even some generics that have been around for decades and selling for pennies a dose have risen to alarming proportions.
Under such circumstances, competition is the obvious reaction to potential price gouging. Competition for proprietary drugs is not tenable since they are protected by international patent agreements. However, for generic drugs, the market is the wild wild west. If one generic manufacturer decides to suddenly hike it's profits through price gouging, it is a simple matter for another generic manufacturer to offer a cheaper generic alternative.
Likewise, when a proprietary drug loses its patent and license protection, it is common for generic drug companies to experiment with cheaper alternatives for sale. Such generic offerings are protected by governments through quality testing and licensing arrangements in order to protect the consuming public.
Take one example of the latter situation. A long acting injectable insulin - let's call it Rampus - has lost its proprietary status; it has sold for approximately $370 for a 30 day refill. A generic drug manufacturer estimates that it can produce a duplicate product - and pass government quality test standards - for $45 for a nominal 30 day supply. If the competitive drug is allowed on the market, it drives the market price down.
A powerful drug supplier with firm political connections might seek to squash the emergence of competitive generic products. If the insulin Rampus is two or three years out of patent protection, one might speculate what forces are preventing the emergence of generic competition. Could it be government corruption in not allowing approval of generic drug production? Or could other, more nefarious, forces be at play?