The report of the committee of inquiry on the case involving Dr. Nancy Olivieri: a fiduciary law perspective.

Fiduciary law is highly instructive about the limits of what may be agreed to by physician-researchers and sponsor drug companies when their agreements implicate the interests of patients who volunteer as subjects in clinical trials. On October 26, 2001, the Report of the Committee of Inquiry on the Case Involving Dr. Nancy Olivieri, the Hospital for Sick Children, the University of Toronto and Apotex Inc. was released to the public. The Report was commissioned in 1999 by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) following a protracted dispute precipitated by the desire of a physician-researcher to inform patients enrolled in clinical trials of what she believed was a potentially life-threatening effect of the treatment drug. The sponsor drug company, Apotex Inc. (Apotex) , obj ected to the disclosure of this information by Dr. Olivieri and regarded it to be a breach of contract. Apo tex threatened to bring legal action against Dr. Olivieri for any such disclosure.