Independent media needs you. Join the Tyee.

Blogs

The Hook: Political news, freshly caught

BC Health Minister too busy to meet with MP about drug watchdog

Terrence Young, the Conservative MP for Oakville, Ontario, said he had hoped to meet with B.C. Health Minister Colin Hansen about the threatened Therapeutics Initiative drug watchdog, but the minister was unable to make time.

Young made the comment to a Jan. 24 luncheon in Vancouver where he and two other MPs raised his concerns about the future of the internationally recognized University of B.C. research body.

"It’s true MP Young contacted the minister’s office, but it was on short notice, and unfortunately, Minister Hansen’s schedule was booked during the requested times," a health ministry spokesperson wrote in an email.

Young has a personal reason to be concerned about issues of drug approval and the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on government policy. The biographical material distributed by the Canadian Association of University Teachers at Monday’s luncheon says Young "lost his fifteen year old daughter Vanessa to the Johnson and Johnson drug Prepulsid in 2000- a preventable adverse drug reaction." Young is the founder of Drug Safety Canada and the author of the 2009 book Death by Prescription.

Young appeared on a panel supporting the Therapeutics Initiative (sponsored by the Canadian Association of University Teachers and the Canadian Health Coalition) together with Liberal Health Critic and former B.C. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh and NDP MP Jean Crowder, who represents Nanaimo-Cowichan.

The lunch meeting heard all three parliamentarians and several health care professionals criticize the provincial government’s changes in drug evaluation procedures, which will, as The Tyee recently reported see the Therapeutics Initiative lose some of its core funding while more drug evaluation work will be done on a contract basis, a change that the speakers at the luncheon unanimously condemned as weakening a body that has served BC and Canada well for years.

Several speakers cited the role the Therapeutics Initiative had played in alerting the province to the dangers of the anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx and thus saving 500 BC lives. All of the speakers urged that the Therapeutics Initiative continue to receive at least its current level of funding, saying that losses to core funding are particularly destructive to long term, evidence based science such at that conducted by the UBC team.

The Ministry of Health does not accept these criticisms. By email, a ministry media spokesman told the Tyee, “From the very beginning of this process, we have made it clear that our aim is to have a more transparent and cost-effective drug review process. Our investment in clinical evidence reviews remains intact – we’ve simply broadened the number of B.C. researchers who can participate in the process.”


What have we missed? What do you think? We want to know. Comment below. Keep in mind:

Do:

  • Verify facts, debunk rumours
  • Add context and background
  • Spot typos and logical fallacies
  • Highlight reporting blind spots
  • Ignore trolls
  • Treat all with respect and curiosity
  • Connect with each other

Do not:

  • Use sexist, classist, racist or homophobic language
  • Libel or defame
  • Bully or troll
  • Troll patrol. Instead, flag suspect activity.
comments powered by Disqus