VICTORIA — When Opposition leader Adrian Dix started question period Tuesday by challenging the B.C. Liberals over their lack of support for the Therapeutics Initiative, it sounded as if he were re-fighting another lost cause from the provincial election.

The Liberals have lately been cutting funding to the initiative, the University of B.C.-based team of researchers who’ve provided independent assessments of prescription drugs for the better part of two decades.

The New Democrats ran on a promise to double funding to $2 million while accusing the Liberals of pandering to the major pharmaceutical companies in undercutting an initiative that saves money and protects patient health.

The New Democrats got that one right, as a Sun editorial noted 10 days before the election: “Therapeutics Initiative has proven its worth: NDP says it will restore funding if elected; Liberals should make same promise.”

But as happens after elections, the good ideas from the losing party tend to get tossed on the scrap heap along with the bad.

And after a second campaign boilerplate question from Dix that provoked a campaign boilerplate answer from Health Minister Terry Lake Tuesday, you had to wonder where this thing was headed.

Then came the third question and suddenly Dix was quoting from an eyebrow-raising internal memo about the Liberal government’s handling of Champix, a controversial smoking-cessation drug.

The Liberals had approved coverage for the drug under Pharmacare as part of Premier Christy Clark’s widely touted campaign to get British Columbians to give up smoking.

But when Clark was challenged over the alleged risks associated with the drug — it has been delisted in some jurisdictions — she vowed that the government would take those concerns into consideration in continuing coverage under Pharmacare.

That was June 2011. This was Dix in the legislature this week: “The premier promotes Champix. The government then lists Champix on the Pharmacare program. The premier says the drug’s lethal side effects, which have forced it to be recently taken off the list in other jurisdictions, will be reviewed.

“And then, when the therapeutics initiative is doing such a review, the ministry of health sends the following email: ‘We have 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.’ ”

Boom. The memo was written by a senior official in the Ministry of Health and directed to the folks at the Therapeutics Initiative. In plain language, it seemed to say that the independent review was being shut down for political reasons.

In reply, Health Minister Lake said nothing about the email inside the house and as little as possible outside. Hadn’t seen it. Promised to look into it. Defended the government’s decision to cut back on funding for the initiative. Blasted New Democrat Mike Farnworth for a wild followup question where he compared Champix and thalidomide.

Over-the-top comparisons notwithstanding, there’s every reason to be suspicious of the Liberals on this one, given their recent downgrading of the Therapeutics Initiative.