The provincial government has made the right decision in restoring funding for drug research in sa国际传媒, especially because it saves the unique and valuable Therapeutics Initiative.
Contracts and funding have been restored for the University of Victoria and the University of sa国际传媒, which houses the Therapeutics Initiative, the Health Ministry said this week.
In addition to money, the decision restores researchers鈥� access to data. They were cut off in September 2012 after the government began investigating privacy breaches in its pharmaceutical-services division. At least seven ministry staff have been fired.
Although rules were broken, it appears that no patients were harmed. Important research, however, was stalled. Rules for ministry staff and contractors have been tightened to safeguard personal information.
With the restoration of contracts, UVic researchers will be able to resume work on evaluating drugs for Alzheimer鈥檚 disease to help determine whether they should be covered by PharmaCare.
The Therapeutics Initiative does needed work in evaluating the safety and efficacy of prescription drugs. It had funding of $1 million a year, but in 2012, that was cut to $550,000. After the data scandal erupted, the remaining money was chopped.
At the time of this week鈥檚 announcement, the program was getting ready to lay off three people.
So far, it is unclear whether funding will be restored to the $1-million level or to $550,000. Its work certainly justifies the expenditure.
Independent evaluations of drugs are essential to making good health-care decisions. Reinstating the research contracts will pay off for British Columbians.
