The British Columbia Health Ministry hosted a second closed-door meeting late last week for “stakeholders” - mainly representatives from big drugmakers - wanting to make changes to the province’s drug approval process, The Tyee reports.

The meeting at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre discussed implementing recommendations from the province’s Pharmaceutical Task Force report, written by a panel that critics say was populated by too many industry reps. The report (here it is) argued for economic factors to play a bigger role in decision making on what drugs will be available (back story).

Critics feared the panel’s recommendations will be used to increase industry influence and gut the role of the Therapeutics Initiative, a group of University of British Columbia researchers who provide drug advice to the government. The TI reviews the best available science to decide whether evidence supports making a drug available, The Tyee notes.

“They’ve taken away the role of the Therapeutics Initiative and they’re replacing it with something else,” NDP health critic Adrian Dix, tells The Tyee, adding that documents discussed at the meeting show no role for the UBC researchers. “There’s no role in this drug review process for an initiative that’s internationally acclaimed.”

Here’s the rest…