Jim Wright has had March 31, 2016 circled on his calendar for a long time. That’s the date that Therapeutics Initiative (TI), an independent watchdog that evaluates prescription drugs, will see its contract with the B.C. government expire, according to records released under the B.C. freedom-of-information law.
Though Wright, TI’s co-managing director, says that a new contract has been agreed on, he won’t be completely comfortable until he sees it in writing.
Therapeutics Initiative is run out of the University of British Columbia and is a globally recognized institution that keeps pharmaceutical companies and government officials in line. Wright has been with the company since 1994, and in that time has overseen a sometimes tumultuous relationship with the Liberal government that has been in place since 2001.
In the aforementioned records released by the B.C. Ministry of Health, the government calls research done by the TI and other pharmaceutical research groups “ an inherent and important contributor…to operate a sustainable, evidence-informed, efficiently-managed, drug program that improves the health of British Columbians.”
The government has not always felt that way. In 2007, the government set up a task force to evaluate TI. The nine-member group – five of whom were associated with the drug industry – recommended shutting down TI.
“We were doing extremely well and were sort of considered one of the few really effective groups in the world up to 2007,” recalls Wright. “So it was a big surprise, a big shock. Because you’re doing really well, and you’re recognized internationally and then they set up a task force. So everything has gone down hill since that time. But we haven’t been gotten rid of completely. We’ve just been struggling since that time.”
Therapeutics Initiative survived the task force’s advice, but was suspended for a period in 2012. When the contract was renewed later in 2013, the government grant had been cut almost in half, moving from a million dollars a year to the current amount of $550,000.
That’s the amount that has been agreed upon in principle for the next contract. “We tried to negotiate a higher amount, but it wasn’t successful,” says Wright. “Every time something like this comes up we have some uncertainty. It’s not a situation where we say ‘Oh yeah, for sure it’ll be renewed.’”
The government’s treatment of TI hasn’t gone unnoticed by the opposition party. “They don’t have continual, stable year to year funding. So they have to continually, each year, make the case for projects they want to undertake,” says B.C NDP health critic Judy Darcy. “When we really believe that we need an ongoing, independent drug watchdog, and that their funding ought to be increased in order to play that role.”
In a process called ‘budget estimates,’ each time a new budget is adopted by a respective ministry, the spokesperson for the opposition gets to question the minister. “I get to question the minister for anywhere from four to six days,” Darcy says, excitedly. “And believe me, the TI is an issue that we have pursued over and over and over again, and I will be again.”
The B.C. Ministry of Health did not respond to a request for comment.
2 Pages of Health Records
BC FOI – Intake
BC FOI – Original Request