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Editorial: Liberals cave to Big Pharma


Times Colonist November 26, 2010 Comments (20)

The last act in a nasty vendetta has finally played out. Premier Gordon Campbell's government has decided to kill B.C.'s only independent drug review agency. And not just kill it, but bury it in an unmarked grave.

The agency involved is called the Therapeutics Initiative... it evaluates new drugs that come on the market.

The Therapeutics Initiative saves taxpayers $50 million annually by finding cheaper alternatives...
Moreover, the Therapeutics Initiative runs on a shoestring budget...

Finally, its researchers have been credited with saving 500 lives by issuing timely warnings about suspect medications. When the new anti-inflammatory product Vioxx came out, the agency discovered a link with increased heart attack rates. As a result, although Vioxx was approved across most of North America, it was kept off the shelves in B.C.

None of this is disputable...
... Drug companies have been lobbying for years to get rid of the agency.

The Therapeutics Initiative's job is to disbelieve anything it hears about a drug until evidence can be found to support it. That makes it an industry critic.

And of course pharmaceutical firms want to sell their products. They are on the other side of the fence...



...The Ministry of Health has just outlined a new assessment process. First, the Therapeutics Initiative will have no further role. Its funding is terminated.

Second, whereas the drug industry had no voice in the old system, it will have extensive influence in the new one. ...

Third, in what can only be considered an act of spite, staff at the Therapeutics Initiative are to be kept off the new drug benefit council that will manage the process. The experts who ran Canada's most successful drug review program have been told they are not wanted.


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Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/Editori...#ixzz16R0yJ2Tl

(I personally read the Therapeutics Initiative Report and utilize its site for much research.
http://www.ti.ubc.ca/DrugAssessments
As noted in the article This entity kept Vioxx off Canada's pharmacy shelves. it also first reported on the lack of evidence for statin use for "primary prevention", the dangers of antidepressant use in pregnancy and the suicidal dangers of antidepressants in children and adolescents, just to cite a few examples. These would Not have been known without the efforts of this review body. And now, due to political pressure (read Pharma $$$$) the group is being closed down, despite the "just a little decrease in funding as well as no place on the drug review board" disclaimers from the politician responsible for caving to Big Pharma.