Barry Sherman

Early life and education

Barry Sherman was born into a Jewish family in Toronto, the son of Herbert Dick "Hyman" Sherman, who worked for a zipper company, and Sara "Sarah" Sherman, who became an occupational therapist after her husband's death. His grandparents from both sides had fled antisemitic persecution in Russia and Poland, establishing a new life in Canada. Sherman was ten years old when his father died from a heart attack, an event that occurred after his father took him to work at the zipper factory and gave him zippers to count and box, an early experience Sherman recalled as sparking his interest in business. He demonstrated academic excellence from a young age, winning a national physics contest while attending Forest Hill Collegiate Institute and graduating with top marks. In the summer of 1958, he briefly signed up for a Canadian Army student militia but found he disliked submitting to authority. That same year, at age 16, he entered the demanding Engineering Science program at the University of Toronto, which he later wrote he chose specifically because it was reputedly the university's hardest program. During his university summers, Sherman worked for his uncle, Louis Lloyd Winter, at Empire Laboratories, then Canada's largest wholly owned pharmaceutical company, where he worked as a driver primarily picking up urine samples for pregnancy tests and helped watch over operations when his uncle traveled. He graduated in 1964 with the highest honours in his class and received the university's Governor General's Award for his thesis. Sherman then pursued a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a PhD in astrophysics in 1967.

Founding Apotex and pharmaceutical career

Sherman's entry into the pharmaceutical business began immediately after completing his PhD in 1967, when he purchased Empire Laboratories from the executor of the estate of his late uncle, Louis Lloyd Winter, and his aunt Beverley, who had died seventeen days apart in November 1965 leaving four orphaned children. The estate's agreement allowed Sherman to buy a majority stake and run Empire on the condition that the four Winter children could work for the company at age 21 and later buy five-percent stakes, with 15-year royalties on four patented products, but the agreement would be voided if Sherman sold the company. In 1969, Sherman worked out a deal to swap shares with Empire's largest customer that put that customer in control of the company, effectively beginning the process of separating from the Winter estate obligations. In 1970 he invested in the American firm Barr Laboratories with US-based partners, became its largest shareholder and president, and would eventually control a third of Barr's stock. Barr later won the first rights to manufacture generic versions of Eli Lilly's Prozac and is now part of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. In January 1972, Sherman and Ulster Limited sold Empire to the Quebec-based Canadian operations of publicly traded International Chemical and Nuclear Corporation (ICN) of California for 57,000 shares, a transaction that formally voided his arrangement with the Winter estate. A year later, Sherman started Apotex with a few former Empire personnel, incorporating the privately owned and Sherman-controlled company in 1974. Under Sherman's control, Apotex grew into a global giant, claiming by 2016 to employ over 10,000 people, produce over 260 products, and sell in over 115 countries with annual revenues of approximately $1.5 billion. Sherman also ventured into nutraceuticals, founding the National Institute of Nutrition (NION) with Richard Kashenberg, which he later sold to Schiff before focusing fully on Apotex.

Sherman's business philosophy was intensely combative and legally focused, with litigation being a primary tool for challenging drug patents held by major pharmaceutical companies. He once told employees that Apotex was primarily a legal company that sold medications on the side, a view echoed after his death by Maclean's, which wrote he was driven to litigation less by money than something more primal: a sense of righteous certitude that propelled him to prevail at any cost. His strategy generated constant conflict with branded drug makers, who reportedly hired private investigators to surveil Apotex. One plan allegedly considered by investigators working for the German company Bayer AG involved planting illegal drugs in Sherman's car during an operation to lure Apotex employees into informing on patent infringement. Sherman himself acknowledged the animosity in Jeffrey Robinson's 2001 book, stating the branded drug companies hated Apotex and had private investigators on them all the time, and that the thought once came to his mind about why they didn't just hire someone to knock him off. He framed this adversarial role in populist terms, telling a reporter that if they were thieves, they were Robin Hoods.

Other business ventures and investments

Beyond pharmaceuticals, Barry Sherman personally invested in a variety of non-pharmaceutical businesses, many of which proved to be unsuccessful or fraudulent, with associates feeling he was often too generous and trusting, failing to do proper due diligence. His ventures included putting money into a yacht-chartering company which turned out to be a shell corporation that had never bought any yachts, and later buying a majority stake in a company that sold a nutritional supplement marketed by American fraudster Kevin Trudeau. In 1996, when US regulators began investigating the fraud claims that would later lead to Trudeau's imprisonment, Sherman sold half his stake in that company to the Apotex Foundation. For fifteen years, he partnered with fruit-juice maker Frank D'Angelo, who was trying to branch out into other businesses. The two produced the Cheetah Power Surge energy drink and started Steelback Brewery. When D'Angelo Brands went bankrupt in 2007, Sherman lost an estimated $100 million. Sherman continued backing D'Angelo's filmmaking venture even after D'Angelo was arrested on sexual assault and obstruction of justice charges, later dropped, in 2009, with Sherman's money financing all eight films D'Angelo had made through 2018. In the late 2010s, Sherman worked with another man later convicted of fraud, Shaun Rootenberg, who had been introduced by a mutual friend, Cineplex Odeon co-founder Myron Gottlieb. Rootenberg persuaded Sherman to invest in his development of an online trivia game. Sherman later filed a lawsuit against Rootenberg, alleging the latter had simply pocketed the money.

Philanthropy and personal life

Barry Sherman married Honey Reich, a fellow University of Toronto graduate of Austrian nationality who was the daughter of Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors, in 1971. The couple had four children: a son, Jonathon, and three daughters, Lauren, Alexandra and Kaelen. While Sherman socialized regularly with Honey, he was known to his friends and family as a workaholic. At social events she was more outgoing while he often kept to himself and discussed mainly his businesses. The Sherman family frequented a ski club on winter weekends, but while Honey and the children availed themselves of the trails, Sherman remained in the lodge poring over documents, and similarly he did not play golf and would spend vacations reviewing business material. Even as his fortune grew, Sherman drove his cars until they reached an advanced state of disrepair. A friend worried that one, a Ford Mustang, was so decrepit it was leaking carbon monoxide into the passenger compartment. For his 50th birthday, Honey gave him a red sports car with a bow on it in front of assembled guests, but he asked her to take it back, and she did.

Together, the Shermans were major philanthropists in Canada, donating a record $50 million to the United Jewish Appeal and other Jewish charities, despite Sherman himself being an atheist. The couple provided funds to build a major addition to the Baycrest Health Sciences geriatric centre and to other community centres in the Toronto area, and were also major donors to the United Way. The Apotex Foundation had donated over $50 million worth of medicines to disaster zones since 2007, and Sherman personally often loaned money to Apotex employees who needed help. After his death, Maclean's found that Sherman himself, through one of the many companies he controlled, had made large donations to several of the foundations he had set up in his or Apotex's name. Under Canadian tax law, this entitled him to an equivalent tax credit, and the foundations were then allowed to loan him back money and did, loaning him almost the total of the $6 million he gave, an unusually high amount. The leader of a private charity watchdog group said Sherman was using his foundations as a piggy bank and called on Canadian lawmakers to change the law.

Legal battles and regulatory conflicts

Litigation was a fundamental aspect of Barry Sherman's business strategy, earning Apotex a reputation for extreme combativeness with government agencies. The company was much more likely than other Canadian companies to respond to adverse regulatory decisions by suing the government agencies involved, and at the time of Sherman's death, had filed an estimated 1,200 cases against the government in Federal Court. A spokesman for Health Canada, named as a defendant in dozens of Apotex's suits, complained that the company's litigiousness had cost Canadian taxpayers millions of dollars in legal fees. Michele Brill-Edwards, former Health Canada head of drug regulation, recalled that it was intimidating to come back from lunch and find an urgent memo on your desk saying you had to get over to Federal Court because Sherman was at it again, and that he quickly demonstrated that you could bully the government and intimidate it. One of Apotex's most protracted lawsuits, over the company's application to make a generic version of the antidepressant Trazodone, took thirty years until the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the government had mishandled it.

Apotex's litigation also targeted individuals, most notably in the 1990s when the company began exploring making its own branded drugs. One candidate was deferiprone, a potential treatment for the blood disorder thalassemia, with trials overseen by University of Toronto hematologist Dr. Nancy Olivieri at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. By 1998, Olivieri had serious concerns about the drug's efficacy and safety and broke a confidentiality agreement with Apotex to publish her findings. Apotex responded by attempting to damage her reputation and filing a lawsuit against her. The University of Toronto, rather than risk the loss of a $20 million donation from Apotex for a planned research centre, took the company's side and removed Olivieri from her position as head of a research program on hemoglobin disorders. Eventually Olivieri regained her position after years of her own litigation, and the incident helped inspire John le Carré's novel The Constant Gardener.

Apotex was much more likely than other Canadian companies to sue government agencies over adverse regulatory decisions. At the time of Sherman's death, the company had filed an estimated 1,200 cases against the government in Federal Court. Health Canada complained that this litigiousness cost taxpayers millions in legal fees. One lawsuit over a generic version of the antidepressant Trazodone took thirty years to resolve. Sherman himself once told employees that Apotex was primarily a legal company that sold medications on the side.

• The lawsuit and reputation campaign against Dr. Nancy Olivieri over her deferiprone safety concerns, beginning in 1998.
• The 2011 lawsuit by Sherman's cousins, the Winter children, seeking a 20% interest in Apotex or $1 billion in damages, which was dismissed by an Ontario Superior Court justice in September 2017 as wishful thinking, and beyond fanciful.
• Twelve separate lawsuits against all the contractors who built the Shermans' North York home after they claimed the garage structure with a tennis court, lap pool, and hot tub was faulty, through which they recovered almost the entire estimated $2.3 million cost.
• A lawsuit against business partner Shaun Rootenberg for alleged fraud related to an online trivia game investment in the late 2010s.
• Numerous patent challenge lawsuits against major pharmaceutical companies like Bayer AG and Eli Lilly, fighting as many as 100 court battles at a time.

In a partial draft of his unpublished memoir submitted in a lawsuit, Sherman wrote about philosophy, Canadian politics and the pharmaceutical industry. He stated he did not believe in God, free will, altruism or morality. Sherman wrote that he found no inconsistency in holding intellectually that life has no meaning while being highly motivated to survive and achieve. Despite being an atheist, he and his wife were major donors to Jewish charities. Sherman also had business dealings with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which later acquired Barr Laboratories, a company Sherman had invested in.

Political lobbying and influence

Barry Sherman was also known for the vigour of his lobbying efforts, primarily focused on pharmaceutical patent laws that affected his generic drug business. When Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's government passed a law that extended patent protection for brand-name drug makers, Sherman complained that it would be destructive to smaller generic drugmakers and began supporting Jean Chrétien and the Liberal Party, who had promised to review the law if they took power in the 1993 general election. Sherman also donated millions of dollars to the University of Toronto for a research centre, contributions he withdrew when the letters the university wrote to the Mulroney government opposing the new regulations did not result in those regulations being withdrawn. In 2006, still unsatisfied, Sherman supported the campaign of Joe Volpe to become Liberal leader. He and other Apotex executives gave $108,000 to Volpe's campaign, all giving the legal maximum of $5,400, which caused some controversy when some of those donations were found to have come from minor children of the executives, although ultimately Elections Canada ruled that no laws were broken. At the time of his death, Sherman, legally registered as a lobbyist, was under investigation because of a fundraiser he had held for Justin Trudeau in April 2015, allegedly contrary to Canada's lobbying rules.

Reputation, personality, and death

Barry Sherman cultivated a deeply polarized reputation, described by the National Post as having Two Legacies. He was widely praised for his philanthropic generosity, with Toronto Mayor John Tory calling him and his wife kind, good people. Conversely, he was viewed by some competitors, regulators, and academics as ruthlessly combative. University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran called him a deplorable human being for business practices he claimed gouged Canadian patients with high drug prices, arguing Sherman sought to manipulate our system to enrich himself and impoverish Canadian patients who used his drugs. Former Ontario parliamentarian Morton Shulman said Sherman was the only person he had ever met with no redeeming features whatsoever, and a Bloomberg writer reported that some rival generic drug company executives used unprintable language to describe him. On December 13, 2017, Sherman and his wife Honey were found dead in the indoor pool area of their Toronto home. The Toronto Police Service initially investigated the deaths as a possible murder-suicide but later reclassified the case as a double homicide after further investigation and disputes from the media and the Sherman family. In April 2019, police stated they had a working theory of the case and an idea of what happened, and as of May 2022, the investigation remained active and ongoing with no suspects or persons of interest named publicly.

Questions about Barry Sherman

How did Barry Sherman make his money?

Barry Sherman built his fortune primarily through Apotex Inc., the generic pharmaceutical company he founded in 1974. He entered the industry by purchasing his uncle's company, Empire Laboratories, in 1967 from the estate of Louis Lloyd Winter. After selling Empire in 1972, he used the proceeds to start Apotex, which grew under his aggressive leadership to become Canada's largest domestic drug manufacturer. By 2016, Apotex employed over 10,000 people, sold over 260 products in 115 countries, and generated annual revenues of about $1.5 billion. Sherman's wealth was estimated at US$3.2 billion at the time of his death.

How did Barry Sherman and his wife die?

Barry Sherman and his wife, Honey Sherman, were found dead in their Toronto home on December 13, 2017. The initial investigation by the Toronto Police Service considered the deaths a possible murder-suicide. However, after further investigation and significant public and media dispute of that theory, the police reclassified the case as a double homicide. As of May 2022, the investigation was described as active and ongoing, with police having a working theory but no named suspects or persons of interest.

What were Barry Sherman's main philanthropic contributions?

Barry and Honey Sherman were major philanthropists in Canada. Their most notable contributions included a record $50 million donation to the United Jewish Appeal and other Jewish charities. They funded a significant addition to the Baycrest Health Sciences geriatric centre and supported other Toronto community centres and the United Way. Through the Apotex Foundation, they donated over $50 million worth of medicines to global disaster zones since 2007. Sherman also personally provided financial loans to Apotex employees in need.

What was Barry Sherman's educational background?

Barry Sherman was a highly accomplished academic. He attended the University of Toronto, entering its rigorous Engineering Science program at age 16 and graduating in 1964 with the highest honours in his class, winning the Governor General's Award for his thesis. He then earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in astrophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967. This strong scientific foundation preceded his career in the pharmaceutical business.

What was Barry Sherman's net worth?

At the time of his death in December 2017, Barry Sherman's net worth was estimated by Forbes to be US$3.2 billion, ranking him as the 12th wealthiest person in Canada. Another publication, Canadian Business, estimated his fortune at CA$4.77 billion, which would have placed him 15th in the country. Sherman was the chairman and CEO of Apotex Inc, a privately owned pharmaceutical company he founded. His wealth was accumulated through his leadership of Apotex, which grew to employ over 10,000 people and generate about $1.5 billion in annual revenue. The company sold over 260 products in more than 115 countries.

Was Barry Sherman involved in any major lawsuits?

Yes, litigation was a central and defining part of Barry Sherman's business career. His company Apotex was exceptionally litigious, having filed an estimated 1,200 cases against the Canadian government in Federal Court, often challenging regulatory decisions from Health Canada. Major legal battles included a thirty year lawsuit over the generic version of the antidepressant Trazodone. Sherman was also sued by his four orphaned cousins, the Winter children, in 2011. They sought a twenty percent interest in Apotex or $1 billion in damages, but an Ontario court dismissed the case months before Sherman's death. Apotex sued researcher Dr Nancy Olivieri after she broke a confidentiality agreement to publish safety concerns about an Apotex drug, and Sherman personally filed twelve successful lawsuits against the contractors who built his home, recovering almost the entire $2.3 million construction cost.

Sources and further reading

• Barry Sherman (Wikipedia)
• Who killed Barry and Honey Sherman? The billionaire ... (abc.net.au)

Checked by the Yadude Books desk. Last updated 2026-10-22.