By MICHAEL KEATING
The Canadian Diabetic Association wants to halt the sale of Connaught Medical Research Laboratories because if fears the sale will increase the price of insulin to about 130,000 people who need it daily.
The association has petitioned the Ontario Government to stop the University of Toronto from selling the laboratories to the Canada Development Corp. until there is a full investigation.
According to Dr. A. M. Fisher, who retires today as an associate director of Connaught and is chairman of the executive committee of the diabetic association. the Toronto laboratory sells insulin to Canadians from 25 to 35 per cent cheaper than U.S. companies sell it in that country.
He said the average daily cost for a Canadian diabetic is 10 to 15 cents.
Dr. Fisher said the CDC has stated it wants to pay dividends to shareholders within five years and "if you are working for a profit one of the things you do is sell for what the market is."
Meanwhile, the CDC and the university have spent days trying to assure governments and the public that the sale, which will be completed by mid-August. will not mean life-saving products are used for profiteering.
"There will be no change in the price of insulin in the foreseeable future," Anthony Hampson, chairman of the CDC, said in an interview yesterday.
The Ontario Government has asked the U of T to write safeguards into the sale to avert major increases in the prices of products like insulin, blood, elements and the vaccines that every child receives. Now the province gets biologicals at cost from Connaught and any price increase will mean a bigger bill for the Ministry of Health.
Dr. Fisher, who joined Connaught in 1930, said he would like to see it remain a non-profit institution. He said the announcement of the sale last May made the scientists and technicians feel like hockey players who had been sold without having a say in their future.
Dr. Fisher said he was concerned that the institute that helped develop insulin and the Salk polio vaccine and produced these at low prices would be changed into a private company.
In an interview Dr. Charles Best, one of the co-discoverers of insulin at the U of T in 1921, also expressed concern over the change in Connaught.
Dr. Best, who is a former associate director of Connaught, said research done there in the past into such diseases as cancer and influenza probably wouldn't have been tackled if the institution had to worry about showing a profit.
For the past two months the CDC has been convincing governments it will continue to work with them and will not drastically increase the prices of its products.
When interviewed yesterday Anthony Hampson, chairman of CDC said "we have given a general undertaking to the U of T to continue to make public health products available at reasonable and competitive prices.
"There will be no change in the price of insulin in the foreseeable future." John Evans, who becomes president of the U of T tomorrow, said the university is trying to write safeguards into the final contract to protect the interests of governments and the public.
A. G. Rankin, U. of T executive vice-president, said yesterday that the CDC has accepted conditions that Connaught remain in Canadian hands, retain its prime role in public health and maintain the same, high level of research. He said the university hopes to maintain close relations with the laboratories.
Although an agreement for the sale was signed on Tues- day, the exchange will not be complete until about mid-Au gust when the balance sheets of June 30 are audited and a final price established."
Recently Connaught had sales of $11-million to $12-million a year in 65 countries and last year its assets were believed worth $26-million. The sale price has been rumred at from $25-million to $35-million.
In its first purchase since it was formed by the federal Government more than a year ago, the CDC will pick up the main laboratory site at Steeles Avenue west and Duf- ferin Street. plus the 500-acre Connaught farm and several thousand animals, at Bolton.
The university plans to sell about 85 acres of valley land on the main site to the Metro Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. probably for $1,000 to $2.000 an acre.