Simmering suspicions over the B.C. Liberals’ attitude to a well-regarded drug review program reached the floor of the legislature Tuesday, by way of some leaked emails.
The NDP Opposition quoted from an internal government email that cites politics as the reason why a review of the drug Champix, used in B.C.’s smoking cessation program, was halted.
It’s the latest in a continuing series of questions around the Therapeutics Initiative, a University of British Columbia program that independently evaluated the efficacy of new drugs.
B.C. politicians of all stripes have grappled for years with the Therapeutics Initiative as an issue. Pharmaceutical companies — with 600 sales people in B.C. dealing with doctors — are suspicious of the program because it has the potential to make a big impact on sales of certain drugs.
Although the B.C. Liberals say they still support the Therapeutics Initiative, they started a similar but separate drug-benefits review program to speed up the approval process.
The issue is complicated by the scandal created by the firing of several health researchers doing work, some of which related to the Therapeutics Initiative. The government cited improper use of confidential information and dismissed them last year. But the investigation — which included referring some matters to the RCMP — continues. The reasons have never been clearly stated, but subsequent court documents cite concerns about familial conflicts of interests and improper contracting.
One of the dismissed researchers — Rebecca Warburton — is the writer of the email cited by the Opposition.
In a note to a research manager at the Therapeutics Initiative in June 2012, she wrote: “We’ve decided to keep Smoking Cessation in-house, sorry about that — it’s getting political and we aren’t sure anyone wants to see a published evaluation.”
She was suspended a few weeks later and dismissed several weeks after that. Her status and that of others is tied up in a series of court actions related to wrongful dismissal claims.
The email by itself is baffling. Who wouldn’t want to see a published evaluation? What would politics have to do with it? And it’s not clear who “we” is. Does it represent the view of the health experts at the time, or was it a ministerial decision based on the politics?
The NDP is claiming the latter, based on Premier Christy Clark’s record. She campaigned for leader on the promise of mounting a free program to help people quit smoking. Champix was one of the three drugs chosen for inclusion in the program, which subsidizes nicotine-replacement therapies.
Champix has been flagged over concerns that it provokes suicidal impulses in some users. That’s the subject of a class-action lawsuit in Ontario and has led to it being delisted elsewhere in the world.
NDP Leader Adrian Dix led the charge on Tuesday. Dix said it’s presumably the premier’s politics that are referred to in the email and that suppressing a review is “disgraceful, scandalous conduct.”
The “in-house” review got caught up in the suspension of work over the data-sharing and conflicts of interest issues, Dix said.
Health Minister Terry Lake said he’s never seen the email, but the drug has been approved nationally and several other provinces use it.
Champix’s inclusion as a subsidized drug under the smoking-cessation program was recommended through that process, he said.
He insisted the government still has a working relationship with the Therapeutics Initiative. “To suggest that we are caving in to Big Pharma is absolutely ridiculous,” he said.
The NDP charges the B.C. Liberals with cutting funding to the Therapeutics Initiative, but Lake said that’s a result of the suspension of some contracts while the data leak scandal is being investigated.
The health minister defended Champix in the legislature as an effective drug that has helped many quit smoking.
Lake said the federal and provincial authorities continue to monitor research on its use.
He said it was reprehensible the NDP would compare the drug to thalidomide, the drug for pregnant woman that turned out to cause birth defects.
“To take it that level I find offensive,” he said.
Under questioning by reporters he agreed to look into the email.
Answers to the questions raised by the phrasing are needed in short order.
