British Columbia's minister of health Terry Lake and the dean of medicine at the University of B.C. Gavin Stuart disagree on whether or not the government continues to fund the Therapeutics Initiative drug research group.

"Government has not cancelled funding to the Therapeutics Initiative or cancelled its working relationship with TI," Lake said in the legislature during question period on July 9. "Some contracts have been suspended while a ministry investigation continues. We think that is the prudent thing to do, and that is the decision that we stand by."

The TI continues to play a role in the province's drug review process, said Lake, who later made similar comments to reporters in the hallway.

Lake's is a very different assessment of the health of the TI, an independent body at UBC that reviews the evidence on prescription drugs, than the one given by UBC's dean of medicine Stuart in a letter The Tyee has exclusively obtained.

"In the absence of funding from the Government, UBC has continued to pay TI faculty and staff in order to protect the integrity of the unit," Stuart wrote in the July 5, 2013 letter to colleagues at the TI and in the faculty of medicine.

"Nine months have passed and unfortunately, with no indication of any resolution in the near future, UBC and the Faculty recognize that it is no longer tenable to continue accumulating deficits related to the initiative," wrote Stuart, who is also a director of the LifeSciences BC biotech advocacy group. "We are working now on mitigating, to the extent we can, the impact on UBC faculty and staff involved with this initiative."

Stuart wrote that he could not offer any "concrete reassurances" regarding the TI's future, but that UBC is working with the government to find a long term solution. He also wrote that UBC is working to have the TI's access to government health data restored.

The full text of Stuart's letter follows:

To: Members of the Therapeutics Initiative

Department Heads and School Directors, Faculty of Medicine, UBC

Dean's Executive Team, Faculty of Medicine, UBC

July 05, 2013

Dear Colleagues,

Re: Therapeutics Initiative

I am writing to address a number of questions that have been circulating regarding the Therapeutics Initiative at the University of British Columbia. The TI is an independent initiative that was spearheaded in 1994 by leading researchers in the Faculty of Medicine. It is part of the Faculty's Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and provides contracted service to the Province of British Columbia's Ministry of Health.

Last September, as a result of government's investigation into data access and suspension of project funding, research activities related to the TI were interrupted. In the absence of funding from the Government, UBC has continued to pay TI faculty and staff in order to protect the integrity of the unit. Nine months have passed and unfortunately, with no indication of any resolution in the near future, UBC and the Faculty recognize that it is no longer tenable to continue accumulating deficits related to the initiative. We are working now on mitigating, to the extent we can, the impact on UBC faculty and staff involved with this initiative.

While I am not able at this point to offer any concrete reassurances regarding the future of the TI, I assure you that we are working closely with government to resolove the matter and to determine a long term solution. UBC is also working actively with the Province to help clarify outstanding issues surrounding data access. I wish to point out that these developments in no way detract from the exceptional work done by members of the TI or the value of the initiative. UBC hopes that data access to the TI can be restored, its important work can continue and funding from the province can resume.

I will endeavour to keep you informed of developments. If you have any questions or concerns, please email me directly and I will do my best to respond.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin C.E. Stuart, MD, FRCSC

Dean, Faculty of Medicine

Vice Provost Health, UBC

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee's Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Find him on Twitter or reach him here.