The BC government is lifting a freeze on at least some drug research contracts in the wake of an alleged privacy breach.
Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid says the freeze should be lifted in the next few days.
“I’m happy to announce that in the next few days we will be able to restart just over about one million dollars worth of these contracts. we’ve determined that these contracts are not going to jeopardize the ongoing investigation and that the researchers in these cases have followed proper contract procurement processes and proper data management is actually being used.”
Five government employees have been fired and two suspended without pay for what the government says was inappropriate use of medical data used by researchers.
Other contracts worth about three million dollars remain suspended.