News

Life Saving Drug Watchdog May Be Scrapped

Health minister takes cue from panel stacked with pharma reps.

By Andrew MacLeod, 23 May 2008, TheTyee.ca

Health Minister George Abbot (head shot)

Health Minister George Abbott.

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A panel stacked with people connected to the drug industry has told the Health Ministry it should get rid of a group of independent researchers whose advice has saved hundreds of British Columbian lives and millions of taxpayer dollars.

Health Minister George Abbott said he accepts the panel's recommendations, and the independent research group the Therapeutics Initiative at the University of British Columbia will at least be altered.

Critics say the minister and the report, which also attacked generic drugs while ignoring many of PharmaCare's biggest expenses, are pandering to the interests of the brand-name drug companies and Liberal party donors who were represented on the task force.

Abbott said it was likely the government would keep the Therapeutics Initiative model, but phase it into another drug review committee with other "stakeholders" represented. Those stakeholders would not include drug company representatives, he said. The panel's report suggested including members of the public on the committee.

"We haven't made a decision yet on that," he said. "I think it's fair to say what we'll see will be a transformation or an evolution of the TI process to make it first of all more transparent and more timely in its decisions, and more inclusive in terms of the number of qualified professionals who might be a part of that process."

NDP health critic Adrian Dix said the report and Abbott's acceptance of the panel's recommendations will one way or another mean the end of independent advice from the Therapeutics Initiative.

Panel stacked

"The pharmaceutical industry has wanted to get rid of the Therapeutics Initiative for an awfully long time," Dix said. "It's breathtaking they had the audacity to do this."

The task force included the industry's top lobbyist Russell Williams, the president of Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D) -- a national lobby group based in Ottawa with members from some 50 drug companies and whose directors include the presidents, CEOs and other top officials from 14 of the country's biggest drug manufacturers.

At least five of the task force's nine members had close connections to the industry, as documented by The Tyee in November. The government's announcement listed the chair, Don Avison, as a representative of the University Presidents' Council, while failing to note he also sits on the board of LifeSciences B.C., a lobby group whose members include dozens of drug companies.

"I just think it's sad the pharmaceutical industry got what it wanted and they were on the panel and people who should have been protecting the public interest in that debate were not," Dix said.

"This private deal to get rid of an agency they didn't like. I just think that's wrong," he said. "It's a message to agencies that if you're too tough on industry and if you're too strong in protecting the public interest, that you'll be the target for similar action."

Director optimistic

The managing director of the Therapeutics Initiative, Jim Wright, said the report is contradictory, and once the government takes a closer look, it will realize the value of keeping the group.

At one point, the report says decisions on what drugs PharmaCare pays for should be made by people who have no conflicts of interest, but elsewhere it says "stakeholders" should help make those choices.

"You can't have both. It doesn't really hold together and make sense in terms of those two things."

There's still time for the government to do what's right, he said. "I'm still optimistic that the way forward will be done in a rational way," he said. "All we've been is an independent group that provides some advice. We're not the process."

That advice is needed, he said. "When you're dealing with any commodity that's heavily marketed, you need a trusted source that's looking at the benefits and harms from an independent perspective," he said. "It's particularly true for drugs."

Doctors are well meaning, he said, but they need information from a group like the Therapeutics Initiative to keep them current, he said. "Doctors aren't an independent source, unfortunately. They don't have the time to look into the evidence and they do often have a close relationship with the drug companies."

UBC's faculty of medicine is preparing to do an academic review of the Therapeutics Initiative, he said, and he welcomes the government to take a look as well. The pharmaceutical task force spent just a few hours with four members of the Therapeutics Initiative before writing its report.

"This is certainly not a definitive report by a representative task force," said Wright. "Why doesn't the government look carefully at what we do, because they certainly haven't done that.... We'd be open to a thorough, fair review and assessment."

Saves money

The government will need independent advice, he said, no matter how it decides what drugs to pay for. "There's nobody else who'd be able to take that over. It would take four or five years to set up another group that can do what our group can do. It's a very complex process."

Asked about whether his group makes its assessments fast enough, he said, "I don't think we're the major hold up."

He'd be open to making minor changes to accelerate the process, he said, but added that comes with much risk. "Do you want it to be rigorous or do you want it to be fast? It's always a balance. I would never want to push it to a degree where you can't do it properly."

Wright said he is proud of the Therapeutics Initiative's track record. For $1 million a year, a relatively small amount of money, the government gets the advice of around 30 researchers. While it's hard to say how much money that advice saves the government -- some estimates put it at $50 million a year -- it is clearly a lot.

"We've helped the government save much more than what we cost," Wright said. "We can do for a very small investment an awful lot."

Lives saved

The advice of the Therapeutics Initiative also saves lives. For example, the group warned the B.C. government in 2001 about the painkiller Vioxx three years before Merck & Co. pulled it from markets around the world because it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

The company continues to fight battles in court stemming from rushing Vioxx onto the market. This week, it paid out $58 million in settlements for downplaying the drug's risks in its advertising, and is expected to pay another $4.5 billion to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits related to the drug.

In B.C., thanks to the Therapeutics Initiative warning, fewer people received Vioxx. Drug policy researcher Alan Cassels, who in the past has done work for the group but does not presently, said that advice likely avoided 600 deaths in the province and saved the government millions of dollars.

"I think Vioxx should be a reason to look at the way drugs are approved," said Wright. If thousands of people were killed in a plane crash, there would be an investigation and a chance to learn from any errors, he said. But when a drug kills that many people, nobody is looking to see who made mistakes and why.

"It's a reason we need to go back and say, 'Should it have been approved in the first place?'" he said. "If they made a mistake they shouldn't have, how often are they making it? It's probably quite common."

Vioxx unusual: minister

Health Minister Abbott said the drug approval process has many stages and generally works well.

The process includes the Common Drug Review, a national body that assesses how well drugs work, he said. "Before the Common Drug Review ever looks at the efficacy of a drug, it is assessed by Health Canada for safety," he said. "And typically before Health Canada ever sees it, it has often gone through some safety review process in the United States and Europe.... There's some evidence base before we ever see it in Canada."

Asked about what was learned from Vioxx, Health Minister Abbott said, "Vioxx is a good example of where obviously the approval process had failed. I think they largely failed in the United States and there was probably too much dependence on those studies by other jurisdictions."

He said, "I'm sure on occasion there will be drugs that should have had greater scrutiny, but I don't think that's typically the situation."

In other cases, he said, a rapid approval is appropriate. People who had certain forms of breast cancer were pleased to get access to Herceptin fairly quickly, he said. B.C. was one of the first provinces to approve it. "Herceptin would be a good example," he said. "The very prompt approval of Herceptin, I can tell you, was greatly appreciated by that particular disease category and the people who had it."

Evidence suppressed

Wright said Herceptin is an ironic drug for the Health minister to pick as an example. The medical journal The Lancet reported just last week that the company only published the results of trials that were favourable, making the drug look three times more effective than it really was.

Asked whether Vioxx was an unusual case, drug researcher Cassels listed off the names of half a dozen drugs that are approved elsewhere, but where the harms likely outweigh any benefits. "There's a long list of drugs which are strictly controlled in B.C. because they are marginally effective and have safety issues."

He called the task-force report "stupid," and said the recommendations are against the best interests of patients and taxpayers. "It's going to be more dangerous to go into the pharmacy," he said. "This is a government that has a very fine record of evidence-based drug policy, and they've thrown it out the window in favour of marketing-based drug policy."

B.C. has been a model for controlling drug prices, he said, and he figures that's why the industry wanted to strike the task force and make these changes. "They want to limit the spread of evidence-based medicine," he said. It's shameful the province would play along, he added. "They didn't realize what a political liability this is going to be," he said. "This is a complete undermining of our pharmaceutical policy in B.C."

Related Tyee stories:

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Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee's Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. You can reach him here.

39 Comments:

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  • Gary

    4 years ago

    Is this minister insane?

    This is, in my opinion the most blatant attempt by big business to cause the deaths of people in BC for the sake of the almighty dollar. This is really sick.

    The people of this province need to wake up to the fact that they are dying (literally) to line the pockets of the rich, I alledge.

  • Skywalker

    4 years ago

    Shame on you George!

    Shame on you Abbot for selling out to the donors to the liberal party. The Therapeutics Initiative has served us very well over the years and they are INDEPENDENT. Now Drug efficacy decisions are to be made by the very people who have a $take in the outcome. Shame and Resign! You are not fit to be the Health Minister anymore.

  • ursus

    4 years ago

    B.C. is for sale

    all you have to do is give money to the liberal election machine, wonder if abbot will be given a few nice board positions after he retires or gets kicked out of office?

    Thanks gordo for once again proving how little you care about the people of this Province preferring instead to line the pockets of your supporters.

    Cheers.

  • ursus

    4 years ago

    The above post is

    just my opinion but I have become very cynical about this government and gordo, why else would they repeatedly take care of big business at the expense of the poor and less fortunate in our society.

    How will this affect seniors on fixed incomes, they better take a good look at these changes and voice their concerns during the next election by helping to kick the liberals out.

    Cheers.

  • Booker

    4 years ago

    Lobbyists

    this health minister has shown himself to be very open to the influence of lobbyists from both the pharmaceutical and the alt. med. industries. ( regarding alt med, see this link from March: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/03/31/bc-province-to-offer-acupuncture.html?ref=rss

    It is imperative that the Minister receive the advice of independent experts in science-based medicine, not experts in sales and marketing.

  • skeptikool

    4 years ago

    Throughout the system venality rules

    This article, in my opinion, illustrates well, complicit government running interference on behalf of the major players in the pharmaceutical industry. The author touches on a malady that infects the whole business of sickness.

    from the article:

    Quote:
    ...unfortunately. They don't have the time to look into the evidence and they do often have a close relationship with the drug companies.

    Many might claim masterful understatement here. That Las Vegas feting isn't done without expectation.

    Doctors have a vested interest in return visits of patients. That is not to say that all have patients unnecessarily do so. I believe many doctors to be far from blameless in what ails health care, as a result of which we all pay heavily, whether or not we use the system.

  • G West

    4 years ago

    Morfitt and Cassels

    I heard Cassels' critique of both the makeup and the report of the panel - it was scathing.

    I guess the panel had to find someone with NO connection to the industry to shoulder the 'defence' of its report to government so they sent poor George Morfitt (retired former auditor general of the province) to respond to questions.

    He claimed - without a shred of empirical evidence I could discern during a mercifully short interview with Mark Forsythe - that everything was fine, the members of the panel were jolly good souls and the UBC therapeutics initiative was an understaffed and underfunded waste of time.

    He was NOT convincing - further levels of scrutiny might not have prevented the Vioxx mess - but, it is nice to think that some independent body without spider web-like ties to Big Pharma is actually looking over their shoulders in the testing and pre-approval stages of drug development. No doubt they need further support and funding which will NOT be forthcoming – the illusion of oversight is really all that’s ever needed with this government – particularly in the area of health care.

    Given the fact that the provincial auditor general's office is meant to provide that kind of oversight with respect to all government spending I was not at all impressed with the former incumbent's 'independence' with respect to the 'work' of the panel. He actually seemed a little ill at ease with the (to me) obvious implication that he was included on the panel (absent any medical or research qualifications) to provide verisimilitude and a measure of credibility.

    As to the other George - Abbott that is, I'd say a simple look at the mess he's made of health care and seniors health initiatives including un-kept long term bed provision promises is about all one needs to understand before concluding that - report or no - he won't be helping the situation.

    It has come to my attention that the Bureau of Public Affairs spends a good deal of effort monitoring various media outlets in this province. I certainly hope so because someone needs to get back to the CEO premier that the 'stakeholders' are getting restless.

    I wonder who's tasked with monitoring the Tyee?

    I welcome respectful comments to my posts at Tyee.

    G West.

  • leem

    4 years ago

    health care is a sham

    its not just the provincial gov't, and its certainly not just the lib's that are interested in getting the most $ for your health. Bill C-51 is going to limit all of your natural health choices, too, and leave you with the costly, pharmaceutical option, or nothing. Health insurance costs will skyrocket to keep pace with pharm drugs, and the elite will finally have what they want- sick serfs dependant on their masters for food, water, and security.
    Send a letter to George, Tony Clement, Stephen Harper- tell them that you need to have choices regarding your health care, and you only want independant, informed people helping to make the decisions that effect you and your family! Corporate stakeholders are not qualified to decide what drugs you have access to, nor are they able to arbitrarily chose what natural health products you are allowed to use.
    Arguing online is a start, but we have to make these "elected" officials know how we feel, and that we deserve better! Get involved and stay informed :)

  • Booker

    4 years ago

    Bill C-51

    It's one of the few, and maybe the only, things that the current federal gov't has proposed that I agree with. Canadians deserve to be protected from wild health claims from the "natural" health products industry as much as they do from the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, Big Pharma is upset by Bill C-51 because they actually own many of the companies marketing "natural" products. It's an extremely profitable part of their business (no need for hugely expensive clinical trials -- they can make virtually any claim they want as long as it's worded vaguely. There is also no quality control. A consumer buying echinacea can have no confidence about what's actually in the tablet).

    The natural health products industry is trying to frame the issue as one of consumer choice. It's really about money and getting a free ride.

    There is a website, www.stopC51.com that is a front for the manufacturer of Truehope EMpowerplus, a concoction of vitamins that sells for an incredible $75 per bottle. That's just one small example of the lobbying that Health Ministers, MPs and MLAs face.

  • Luke Skywalker

    4 years ago

    Pharmaceutical Costs...

    Quote:
    Critics say the minister and the report, which also attacked generic drugs while ignoring many of PharmaCare's biggest expenses, are pandering to the interests of the brand-name drug companies

    OTOH...

    Quote:
    Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick spend 12 percent or more above the national average, whereas B.C. spends as much as 20 percent below the national average for prescription drugs on a per capita basis.

    If Quebec matched B.C.'s expenditure rate on a per capita basis, he said, that province would save enough money to pay for 10,000 nurses.

    http://www.straight.com/article-124451/liberals-leave-expert-off-stacked-drug-panel

    And just last year, there was a Memorandum of Understanding between BC and Alberta to combine forces (purchasing power) for further joint savings in pharmaceutical purchases.

    Quote:
    This MOU will allow Alberta and British Columbia to explore opportunities for joint savings for the procurement of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

    http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2005-2009/2007OTP0065-000638-Attachment1.htm

  • Van Isle

    4 years ago

    This is just another example

    This is just another example of how our government is allowing the BIGBOYS to be pigs at the trough and want to weaken our health system so it will fall apart. C'mon Carol James and Her Majesty's Loyal Oppostion, stand up and start screaming from the rafters about this bunch of crooks in Victoria.

  • Jake-from-the-lake

    4 years ago

    health care

    Abbots comments on health care were to be expected.He is another sicko in the Campbell group who prefer to fill their supporters pockets over the best interests of BC taxpayers.Pretty sick.As a[CANADIAN]
    I would like to hear from the chinese and hindu liberal mla's and what do they think of filling the pockets of pharmaceutical
    Co's I'm sure CANADIAN seniors are upset
    There will be a lot of liberal garbage till the end of the year.That's when the liberal gov will shut off all anti liberal
    advertising.They hope voters will forget how corrupt they are.Will the times colonist give them another $30,000
    Will canned west give them another$50'000
    Where do ctv and global stand? How will campbell muzzle the chamber of commerce.
    How will campbell muzzle the fraser institution and their inmates? This gov is so corrupt the public has to be allowed
    to comment on their actions right up to
    election time.The benefits of right wing gov have a lot in common with communistic
    gov's and the corrupt gov's of china and india

  • G West

    4 years ago

    Pardon me

    But this story is about British Columbia - comparisons are largely meaningless - especially without a much more detailed analysis of the comparative situations.

    I'm surprised, though, that no mention was made of several other provinces' drug costs - for example - Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

    However, if comparisons are going to be made, I'd suggest a good place to start would be New Zealand.

    http://longwoods.com/product.php?productid=19098

    The above is an interesting academic study.

    It provides evidence that..."a variety of formulary-based policies (that) might be used in conjunction with a national formulary, drawing on the policies and practices of the Pharmaceutical Management Agency of New Zealand. We consider the potential price impact of an actively managed national formulary by conducting a Canada-New Zealand price comparison for equivalent products in the four largest drug classes: statins, angiotensin-coverting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). The results suggest that potential price savings for Canada in these drug classes are on the order of 21% to 79%. Such price differences would translate into billions of dollars in annual savings if applied across Canada, potentially offsetting the costs of the expansion of pharmacare coverage necessary to achieve both equity and efficiency goals in this sector."

    Of course, Gordon and his compliant finance minister would much rather cuddle up to Alberta.

    Of course, the only REAL answer is for the federal government to assume its proper role in the matter and ensure that the spirit and intent of the Canada Health Act is preserved - along the lines described herein:

    http://www.healthcoalition.ca/pbn.pdf

    On the other hand, one ought not expect too much from a committee composed of industry representatives and a superannuated accountant.

    I welcome respectful comments to my posts here at Tyee.

    G West

  • mopled

    4 years ago

    Correction Booker

    Bill C-51 will do a great deal more than protect you from wild health claims....the present law already does that.

    What it will do is:
    1] The prospective law can be used to remove your rightful access to vitamins, herbs, spices, dietary supplements & medicinal food. Promoted as a means to protect the safety of Canadians from untested natural health products, Bill C-51 is a wide-reaching, little publicized and carefully crafted set of amendments to the federal Food & Drug Act that threatens Canadians rights to natural health products. Key changes include: replacing the word “drug” with “therapeutic product” throughout the Act, giving the Canadian Government broad-reaching powers to regulate the sale of all herbs, spices, vitamins, and supplements. C-51 would require all other therapeutic products to go through an even more costly approval process than the current regulations require, which would be financially impossible for many natural health product manufacturers to meet, rendering the products unavailable to the public. Currently, 65% of the applications to Health Canada are being rejected. In the future, as a possible result of this legislation, only narrowly defined government approved natural health products, possibly to be considered “prescription drugs”, would be available to you - by prescription only! 2] C-51 will result in the outlawing of thousands of beneficial low risk natural health products. It would grant alarming new “enforcement” powers to federal inspectors to “protect” Canadians from “dangerous” unapproved “therapeutic agents”. Without oversight or appeal, products as benign as, for example, dandelion greens, blueberries, bottled water or vitamin C could become illegal to possess or distribute. As written, Bill C-51 can classify your food as a “therapeutic product”. 3] C-51 would also allow federal enforcement agents to raid your home or business without a warrant, seize your bank accounts, and levy fines up to $5 million with jail terms up to 2 years for selling or drying herbs in your kitchen, such activity now to be categorized as “controlled activity”. Bill C-51 allows for the confiscation of your property, and then the charging of storage fees on that property plus a charge for the government bureaucracy's time! In effect, such legislation will destroy an industry that is the age-old alternative to conventional allopathic medicine. Natural medicine works well, is increasingly scientifically-based, and is traditionally and widely used in North America, Europe, and Asia. Bill C-51 would criminalize the sale or even the free distribution of “unapproved natural products”.
    Meeting June 2, 7-9 pm St. Andrews Church Nelson & Burrard http://www.hans.org/

  • mcdull

    4 years ago

    Soupy just wants to prove

    Soupy just wants to prove that we are greater capitalists than our neighbours. We can take much better care of the elite and thereby the big companies. A classless system , not in this Province, you have the glory boys of the lower mainland and the peasants found everywhere else.

  • BillMelater

    4 years ago

    Corporatism at its finest

    This only makes sense to our corporate overlords. People who are ill are liabilities to the corporate bottom line. If you are not fulfilling your duty as corporate slave/work production unit, then you are failing the parasite classes, and deserve homelessness, starvation, and the indifference of the corporate gatekeepers of health and welfare.

  • Booker

    4 years ago

    mopled

    I like this bit:

    Quote:
    bottled water or vitamin C could become illegal to possess or distribute

    cut-and-paste much?

    Anyway, if a manufacturer of "natural" or "alternative" products (most likely a company owned by a large pharmaceutical) is making a medical claim regarding the product's efficacy, they should be able to back it up. If they can't back it up, they can sell it without making medical claims for it. If I'm selling tablets filled with lawn grass and claiming it cures herpes and boosts the immune system, I need to show some evidence for that. If I want to sell it without making a medical claim, I can do so. Can you give me a reason why there should be a double-standard? Can you give me a reason why the public should not be protected from liars and scammers?

  • Andrew MacLeod

    4 years ago

    Nutrient losses

    The following response was sent by e-mail, and the author asked me to post it:

    The facts are pharmaceutical use induces significant nutrient losses in the body. The brand names that Health Minister Abbott and Premier Campbell seem to prefer are often far worse for this than their generic counter parts or older versions.

    The anti inflammatory Vioxx caused heart attacks because it increased the need for B vitamins, including folic acid. Other non steroidal anti-inflammatory dugs can are just as bad. Acetaminophen overdose (Tylenol) can destroy the liver by depleting if of an important amino acid.

    All statin drugs interfere with a metabolic pathway that produces cholesterol. It is also the same metabolic pathway that produces an important enzyme that is essential for energy output and muscle function - the suppression of which causes muscle weakness and heart failure. Beta blockers, diuretics, steroids, diabetic drugs, trycyclic anti depressants have the same effect. The result is an epidemic of heart failure.

    Antibiotics are even worse. Not only are the B vitamins lost but also vitamins A, C, E, and K. The minerals that are lost include calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc. These are absolutely essential for a healthy immune function.It is no wonder infections are rampant in British Columbia hospitals.

    The medical profession's excessive application of drugs in their practise together with an appalling lack of knowledge of the consequences of drug induced nutrient depletion is the paramount reason why sickness (whoops!) health care is the fastest growing failing business in Canada. I have witnessed the tragic spectacle of an MD losing the right to practise, not because of garage full of bodies but, in the opinion of the College of Physicians of Surgeons, vitamins were being prescribed in preference to Prozac or Ritalin. To hell with the patients well being.

    The next time our research challenged health minister and premier cry about the high cost of health care in British Columbia let them cry to the drug company financed 'astro turf' consumer groups that lobbied for brand name drugs over generics. That is what you get for relying on "Brand Power."

    Croft Woodruff PhD MH

  • Jake-from-the-lake

    4 years ago

    Health care' cambell style'

    One thing for sure, there is no money to be made in heathy people.Corporations want to control our food, health care,water,
    and corrupt gov's. Monsanto and DuPont are just two co's that lace our environment with cancer causing products.It's all about shareholder profits.You can be a shareholder in a pharmaceutical co' you
    can be a shareholder in chemical co',and
    you can be a shareholder in a private
    clinic.These private clinics can sell their businees to a corporation.I guess
    we can wander a bit and let the private sector know that we will never donate blood or organs to anyone unless we can be assured that they will never leave the public health care system

  • mopled

    4 years ago

    Booker, you know doodely

    The law(s) you want is already in place.

    No one can make unsubstantiated claims and the medical gestapo closed the labs that could have told them if what was on the label was really in the bottle.

    There are also laws on the books about good manufacturing practices.

    Proof of efficacy seems to cut no slack from the TPTB. Truehope had evidence from clinical trials conducted at the U.of Alberta (among others)and won their court battle with Health Canada, which is the most likely reason for Bill C-51.

    This proposed law, by using the blanket term, therapeutic products theoretically could declare bottled water as one....since it quenches thirst.

    Now don't tell me that you haven't seen instances of the law being an ass.

    The push is on Provincial,Federal and International fronts to give Big Pharma what it wants, and most people should be alarmed. Pharma is trying to harmonize Canada to much more restricted Australia and New Zealand. Ultimately it is intended to harmonize the USA to Canada and Mexico where supplements are already regulated as drugs.(DIN numbers on bottles of vitamins have been there for years.)

    I suggest you educate yourself by attending the meeting.http://www.hans.org/
    When: Monday June 2, 2008 7-9 pm Where: St Andrew's - Wesley Church, 1022 Nelson / @ Burrard Street, Vancouver Tickets: available at www.hans.org or by calling 604-435-0512, or at the door.

  • RickW

    4 years ago

    Andrew McLeod

    Practioners of allopathic medicine do not believe in naturopathy and all this hocus-pocus about vitamins, minerals, et al.....

  • Budd Campbell

    4 years ago

    ABBOTT AS BIG A DISGRACE AS CLEMENT

    For some time I have considered federal Health Minister Tony Clement to be pretty much the most disgraceful Minister in the Harper Cabinet. Clement is an utterly irresponsible ideologue, a man driven to an intellectually dishonest approach to public policy by his zealotry, which is made all the more unforgiveable by the fact the Clement is not some uneducated buffoon, he's an educated one, a lawyer before he entered politics.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Clement

    {Note that in his university days, Clement took up the cause of allowing apartheid ruled South Africa's ambassador to speak on campus. The university stopped it.}

    It looks like we have a little bit of federal-provincial symmetry now, with BC Health Minister George Abbott taking over from Employment and Income Assistance Minister Claude Richmond as the most ignorant, stupid and dangerous member of the Campbell Cabinet.

    How Abbott can possibly defend this report is beyond me. It's clearly designed to enhance industry profits at public expense, with no offsetting quality improvements to the health consumer.

  • ThePosse

    4 years ago

    Bubble Boyz

    That's my new name for the Gourd (a hollow, dried shell of a fruit in the Cucurbitaceae family of plants of the genus)gang.

    The Bubble Boyz live in your typical bubble of a world with fairies and spotted toad stools, where cheshire cats wear canary grins.

    In the world of the Bubble Boyz no drugs are harmfull,in fact you can drive under their influence and give breath samples because there is simply no evidence to support the fact there could be bad drugs.

    Look at the Bubble Boyz decision on the Tsawwassen power lines. The kids in a nearby school had a walk out today. How often do you hear about BC kids organizing into any political statement whatsoever?

    When was the last time you ever heard about a BC school full of kids, hundreds of them getting so worried they organize and make a political statement with signs and banners?

    I thought to myself after seeing the drug panel decision and hearing about the protest that maybe the kids might be onto something and that maybe, just maybe the Bubble Boyz are as twisted and evil as most people here claim.After about a 20 second search I found...

    "The California Health Department final report on power frequency EMF was published in October 13, 2002. This 7-year, $9 million study concludes EMFs can cause some degree of increased risk of childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and miscarriage. The Evaluation further concludes that magnetic fields may cause suicide and adult leukemia."

    "The State of Connecticut passed by overwhelming margins in early May 2004 a law that requires power lines to be buried if they pass near residences, schools, hospitals and other sensitive facilities."

    "A major June 2005 British study concludes there is a statistical link between EMF from power lines and childhood leukemia even at distances up to 200 meters."

    So the kids are right. Interesting. I think they have grounds for a lawsuit. There is enough evidence and studies done to support a case for reckless endangerment. Wouldn't it be another case of reckless endangerment if the government didn't properly monitor big pharma and the drugs that are marketed in BC. It would be another case of reckless endangerment if the drugs sold in BC weren't properly reviewed and vetted.

    Are there any other cases of reckless endangerment by the Bubble Boyz?

    What all this tells me is that one day, in the not to distant future, the Bubble Boyz and the Gourd will learn that as far as bubble worlds go, theirs is no different, there is a whole real world outside their little bubble world....lol

    And like all bubbles, it will eventually go POP!

  • Hughes

    4 years ago

    If it ain't broke...

    If it ain't broke, don't fix it?

    Sounds to me like "the fix" is in!

    "I think it's fair to say what we'll see will be a transformation or an evolution of the TI process to make it first of all more transparent and more timely in its decisions..."

    Any time I hear anyone from the BC Liberal party speak of transparency I cringe. Open and transparent government under this autocracy is more endangered than the Spotted Owl.

    " and more inclusive in terms of the number of qualified professionals who might be a part of that process."

    Are you saying that the thirty or so INDEPENDENT[b] researchers working with the Therapeutics Initiative are not qualified? For the paltry some of 1 million dollars the public is already getting good value for it’s money without this short-sighted, partisan i.e. boneheaded move to placate the drug companies.

    I would suggest this is as boneheaded as Bill 42, the Election Amendment Act designed to effectively stifle free speech in this province.

    Is this arrogance run amok or Fascism?

  • SharingIsGood

    4 years ago

    comb-over

    Health Care in BC - A pathetic Abbot comb-over. No ammount of surface fluff can hide the deficiency below.

    As the days progress, no amount of government media monitoring of government-friendly big business media (or even The Tyee for that matter) can disguise what everyone surely sees: Midas has no clothes. His bootlicks attempt to shield the public from his naked greed, but the task grows increasingly difficult. Were it not for his disdain for meeting with the public, Midas would have exposed himself to a kingdom-wide revolt long ago. The king-friendly lords with acumen distance themselves from the castle. The foolhardy jesters and advisors who answer the call to court find themselves frozen by his greedy touch. Though the palace is guilded, the kingdom is in ruins.

  • jsinger

    4 years ago

    How anyone besides "Liberal"

    How anyone besides "Liberal" friends and insiders could vote for this group of seemingly corrupt and definitely mismanaging politicians is beyond me. The only possible answers are complete ignorance of the truth or rigid ideology. It is sadly clear to me that the mainstream media fosters the required ignorance on a level that most Canadians can't see as even possible.

    George Abbott drives me out of my mind with his head nodding, non question answering, blaming the NDP no matter what the question approach. Do voters not read body language? Abbott's, Gordon Campbell's, DeJong's, etc? If there is such a thing as a body language expert I'd love to hear (and watch) one of them analyze the members of the BC Liberal nerdboys club.

    I know that people criticize Carole James for her approach, but I would take her niceness and integrity any day over the game playing meanies we have in control at the moment. If that liberal nerdboys club is any example at all we DO need more women in political power.

  • G West

    4 years ago

    jsinger

    I've heard a lot of 'ordinary' folks saying the same sort of thing about the differences between the Campbell and the James approach.

    It is even starting to appear in the press - so you can be sure a lot more people out there are starting to 'think' the same sore of thing - even though they're not saying it out loud yet.

    Kind of reminds me of the dying days of the VanderZalm government - even to the parallel of the manufactured fakery of Expo 86 and how it was going to 'change' the province.

    Thanks for speaking out - it is important that more and more people do - until the cacophony of paid seals yelping for a continuation of the Campbell kleptocracy are drowned by their righteous indignation.

    I welcome respectful comments to my posts here at Tyee.

    A little later I'll post a review of the members of Abbott and Campbell's little 'panel' - if I can find it.

    G West

  • G West

    4 years ago

    errata

    That's same 'sort' of thing of course.

  • L4ASP

    4 years ago

    of knowledge resources

    Reading the mandate of this advisory group shows that the results of this report were a foregone conclusion.

    As an information professional I find the following quote from the May 22, 2008 Vancouver Sun article quite breathtaking in its arrogance.

    "Morfitt said the committee believes the government should either replace the TI with another body or change its mandate so the TI concentrates on evaluating drugs and stays clear of public education activities, which is "not what they are funded to do."

    Every research funding body requires that a Knowledge Translation/Exchange mechanism be an outcome of research. The Therapeutics Initiative team's accomplishments inmaking the results of their assessments readily available and readable for a public audience exemplifies the key goals of knowledge exchange.

    The parallels between this and the loss of the Canadian Health Network (CHN) should be ringing alarm bells for information professionals, medical personnel and health care consumers who rely on resources like the Therapeutics Initiatives Letters for authoritative, succinct, reliable meta-analysis of medical research.

  • SharingIsGood

    4 years ago

    Freudian slip - G West

    I think "sore" was more poetic and more appropo, G West.

  • SharingIsGood

    4 years ago

    L4ASP

    Thank you for your insightful commentary, L4ASP, it rounds out the reporting of article quite nicely.

  • ThePosse

    4 years ago

    Jsinger

    "How anyone besides "Liberal" friends and insiders could vote for this group of seemingly corrupt and definitely mismanaging politicians is beyond me"

    It's matter of complacency and how percentages, statistics and numbers can lie or be twisted to suit your whim. The Liberals know how to manipulate those numbers to suit their agenda while the NDP is powerless to stop them because of their lack of direction and will. The NDP policies are too extreme and too self serving as much as the Liberals are. What we need is good government, not good parties, or should I say parties that think they are good.

    Voter turnout is the key. The percentage of people in BC who actually agree with and back the Liberals is very low as a demographic. Very few actual Liberal voters. The problem is no one can trust the NDP so we can't vote for them. I know my dealings with them have been telling. Just ask the editor here at The Tyee, they know my beef. I will point them in the right direction any time they want.

    So what we have is a complacent BC population that is easily pushed around. AS I mentioned in my earlier post on this thread look at the Tsawwassen power lines, in many other cases the residents concerned have been able to affect change in routes and installations choice.

    The real problem in BC is the almost conspiratorial way in which the pendulum swings between BC governments and the political parties getting in power. It's a whipsaw every time, from one extreme to another but always the same outcome; a government party leader stepping down on corruption charges.

    The faces change but the game remains the same. The NDP and the Liberals are the same beast with a different face. BC voters know that and just keep their bud growing and their tanks full.

  • RickW

    4 years ago

    Budd Campbell

    Quote:
    How Abbott can possibly defend this report is beyond me.

    Does the word "directorships" figure into Abbott's future plans.......?

  • lynn

    4 years ago

    Access Denied

    Quote:
    Every research funding body requires that a Knowledge Translation/Exchange mechanism be an outcome of research. The Therapeutics Initiative team's accomplishments in making the results of their assessments readily available and readable for a public audience exemplifies the key goals of knowledge exchange.

    L4ASP, that's such a significant point you make above about the vital link between research and knowledge exchange. Without that exchange of knowledge, research becomes meaningless.

    It's an old but good saying - Knowledge is power.

    Unfortunately, those who rule out of weakness of character and lack of integrity rather than strength, inevitably find it necessary to view public access to information - "knowledge" (and the subsequent potential power therein) as a threat - a threat that will expose their house of chicanery and the legislated lies....not to mention the greed that its sham foundation totters on.

    Never has the BC public been more continually thwarted as we attempt to access, or be privy to, vital public information.

  • Kumakun

    4 years ago

    Not much support on this one.

    People are almost unnanimously coming out against this move by the Liberals. Money alone can't win elections, you also need votes. Someone should tell Gordon Campbell. The Liberals may yet snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the next election. Way to go, boys!

  • RickW

    4 years ago

    Kumakun

    Quote:
    The Liberals may yet snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the next election.

    The Libs are relying on a friendly press to downplay their 101 "faux pas".............

  • Kam Lee

    4 years ago

    Selling out, as per gordo's instructions

    As he is kneeling in front of his master. His mouth full, his mind reeling... "Kill off the old and the sick is heard". "Listen to the phamabarons". "Yes master". Sick, sad, and over soon. Give us back BC! Kick the scoundrals out! End the madness.

  • no1important

    4 years ago

    This is disgusting and I for

    This is disgusting and I for one am tired of certain big business. they have too much power.

    If big Pharma won't do what is in the best interest of Canadians then it should be Nationalised and the government to make medication for the people at a lower rate.

    Why the hell do we let big corporations run this country? Should not the resources and things like medication be owned by the people that live here for the benefit of the people and not huge multinationals?

  • jwlaurie

    4 years ago

    Who better?

    Who better to look after the hen house than the foxes themselves? Who is better at keeping us chickens overworked and underpaid while constantly afraid for our lives? Who better to keep us so busy trying to just survive that we don't notice what's being done to us and when we think we know we're being screwed takes away our right to be properly informed, gagging us with help from their weasel brothers in the media?

    Time to rise up, grab the hatchet back and trim a few bushy manes if you ask me.

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