The Therapeutics Initiative has for years persevered through successive budget cuts and, more recently, restrictive research constraints.

In April 2013, the B.C. Liberal government ceased funding for the pharmaceutical watchdog, effectively shutting it down. TI researchers such as Dr. Tom Perry, chair of the TI’s education group, voiced concerns that that was its end. But on May 1, the University of British Columbia announced it would provide temporary funding for the group, which in 2012 operated with an annual budget of $550,000.

At the time, it was widely believed the NDP would win the May 14 provincial election and fulfill a campaign promise to double the TI’s budget. The NDP lost that contest, and so the TI once again faces the possibility of elimination.

Randy Schmidt, UBC’s acting director of communications, told the Straight that the university has only set aside funds to last through to the end of June.

“When the contribution agreement for funding from the government was suspended, UBC did find some limited resources to keep the TI operational for a short period of time, with the hope that things would be resolved,” he said in a telephone interview. “We just had the election a week or so ago and we’re giving the government some time to get established, and so we’re still waiting to hear about a next step.”

Schmidt added that he’s hoping for a “positive outcome,” but noted that the TI faces other challenges.

In June 2012, the B.C. Ministry of Health blocked researchers’ access to a database that served as the TI’s primary source of information for pharmaceutical drug use in B.C. Those restrictions on TI scientists remain in place.

The TI has also found itself caught on the edges of a debacle at the Ministry of Health that’s resulted in the firing of seven people, although what relations exist between that affair and the TI remain unclear.

B.C. health minister Margaret MacDiarmid—who lost her seat in the May 14 election—has refused repeated requests for an interview on the topic.

The TI has provided British Columbia’s health-care workers with unbiased, evidence-based information about drug therapies for nearly 20 years. According to a 2008 TI survey, 95 percent of physicians and 92 percent of pharmacists in the province stated that the concise letters published at ti.ubc.ca had led to changes in the way they prescribe or recommend drugs.