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Articles on Health Canada

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You may want to know more about a new prescription drug, such as how quickly the drug was approved by Health Canada, whether there have been any recent safety warnings about it or how the drug compares to other medications for the same condition. (Shutterstock)

How to find more information about a drug that your doctor prescribed

If you want to know more about a drug, Health Canada provides information online through several websites. However, some information appears to be getting harder to find.
A family harvests their wheat crop near Cremona, Alta. Pesticide use is common throughout Canadian agriculture. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Striving for transparency: Why Canada’s pesticide regulations need an overhaul

Canada is long-overdue for scientifically-driven, robust and transparent pesticide regulation. A newly created Science Advisory Committee aims to address this.
Health Canada’s new drug licensing proposal contains no mechanism for making fast-tracked medicines affordable. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Canada’s misguided changes to drug regulation could fast-track unproven medications and divert funds from other health needs

The federal government’s proposed Agile Licensing drug approval regulations mean Canada will have less information about the risks of new medicines, and higher costs.
When regulatory agencies like Health Canada approve a new drug, they require the drug company to continue monitoring the product’s safety. (Shutterstock)

Health Canada should be transparent about how it’s monitoring drug safety

Health Canada continues to monitor newly approved drugs to determine if the benefits identified in the pre-market trials hold up to further scrutiny. Canadians need better access to that information.
The pharma industry warned that if proposed new prescription price guidelines go ahead, drug launches would be delayed and ‘Canadian patients will be deprived of potentially life-saving new medicines.’ (Shutterstock)

How the pharmaceutical industry uses disinformation to undermine drug price reform

The pharma industry claims lower prescription drug prices will mean less access to new medication for Canadians. It’s an old threat that pits profits against patients’ rights to affordable drugs.
Generic drug names are assigned at the global level by the World Health Organization in conjunction with national naming authorities. (Shutterstock)

Generic drug names provide information for doctors, so why is Health Canada promoting the use of pharma brand names?

Generic drug names are often long, but they can tell doctors what type of medicine it is and how it works. But it’s brand names that appear first and most prominently in Health Canada materials.
Ethics are important to vaccination decisions because while science can clarify some of the costs and benefits, it cannot tell us which costs and benefits matter most to us. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Ethical decisions: Weighing risks and benefits of approving COVID-19 vaccination in children ages 5-11

When making the decision whether to vaccinate children aged five to 11 against COVID-19, regulators in Canada must rely on sound ethics as well as sound science.
Despite monitoring the same drugs, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States issued the same drug warnings only seven per cent of the time over a 10-year period. (Pixabay)

Drug Safety: Health Canada must act faster when approved medications show risks

Health Canada devotes far more resources to getting new drugs onto the market compared to making sure that drugs already being sold are safe.
A lab technician holds a vial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate during testing at the Chula Vaccine Research Center, run by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand on May 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Explainer: How clinical trials test COVID-19 vaccines

Will a vaccine for COVID-19 be safe? Animal testing, human clinical trials and post-approval surveillance give us good grounds to believe that a future approved vaccine will work and be safe.
Flags fly outside of Montréal City Hall in June 2018. Health Canada has suspended official languages rules on bilingual labelling in an effort to speed up the importation of certain disinfectant and cleaning products during the coronavirus pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sidhartha Banerjee

Coronavirus: Importing products without bilingual labels endangers francophones

Seven million French-speaking Canadians shouldn’t have to decipher English-only labels during the pandemic. Ottawa must take into account the fundamental rights and safety of all Canadians.
Cannabis edibles like sour candy straws are now available for purchase and consumption, but the risks from overdosing are quite high. (Shutterstock)

Cannabis edibles pose serious risks to our kids

As cannabis candies and chocolates become widely available, sweeter edibles may be more appealing to youth. We need to work to minimize the potential health impacts.
When drug companies and drug regulators, such as Health Canada, sit down together at “pre-submission meetings” this may have a negative impact on public health. (Shutterstock)

Health Canada and Big Pharma: Too close for comfort

Drug companies have a job to do and so does Health Canada. When the relationship becomes murky, the public are at risk.
Research shows that six of 11 Health Canada scientific advisory committees had a majority of members with a direct or indirect financial interest. (Shutterstock)

Health Canada committees swimming in financial conflicts of interest

Health Canada must be unbiased and it must be seen to be unbiased – so that Canadians get the best possible value out of prescription drugs.
A customer holds up his receipt after being the first person to buy cannabis at the SpiritLeaf cannabis store in Kingston, Ont., on April 1, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

Feds are blowing smoke about pot supplies

Federal officials have repeatedly claimed cannabis supplies are sufficient. But their own data suggest otherwise.
The failure of TV ads to explain the safety risks of over-the-counter drugs can leave people in the emergency department with liver damage or psychosis. (Shutterstock)

Drug ads leave Canadians in the dark about safety risks

It’s time Health Canada took back the regulation of drug advertising – to protect consumers.
Thousands of people are dying every year of opioid-related overdoses, in an epidemic that traces its roots to 1996 and the introduction of the prescription drug OxyContin. Here, prescription opioids are shown in Toronto during 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy

How Big Pharma deceives you about drug safety

Prescription drugs are policed by industry and Health Canada has never prosecuted a drug company for illegally marketing a drug.
Could universal pharmacare reduce excessive drug price hikes in Canada? Eric Hoskins, former Ontario Minister of Health, will chair a federal government advisory council to implement a national pharmacare plan. Hoskins is pictured here with federal Minister of Health Ginette Petitpas Taylor. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang)

Pharmacare and the chaotic world of Canadian drug prices

The cost of a life-saving drug in Canada is rising by 3,000 per cent. A national pharmacare plan could bring order to this chaotic world of Canadian drug prices.
Health Canada is proposing a new system to fast-track urgent drugs for children, the elderly and those with serious or life-threatening conditions. This would rely on decisions made by regulators in other jurisdictions. (Shutterstock)

Should Health Canada rely on foreign assessment of new drugs?

Health Canada is proposing to allow some prescription drugs into the country with only ‘cursory clinical review.’ Here’s why we should be worried.

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