The Food and Drugs Act has not been overhauled since the mid-1950s. The Government of Canada has stated that it plans to amend the Food and Drugs Act to reflect modern food and health product science, commercial practices and regulatory principles.
A key aspect of this modernization should be to move towards a relative risk framework for regulating therapeutic products. This approach ties the level of regulatory activity to the level of health risk posed by a product.
The consumer health products industry supports this approach.
Currently, some lower risk consumer health products are regulated by the Natural Health Products Regulations, while other lower risk consumer health products fall under the same regulations as prescription drugs (ie., Part C of the Food and Drug Regulations). This situation needs to be rectified.
These consumer health products are regulated under Part C of the Food and Drug Regulations (along with prescription drugs).
These consumer health products are regulated as natural health products under the Natural Health Products Regulations.
Attention Members of Parliament:
Now that you know the difference,
You can make a difference.
The consumer health products industry is urging the federal government to ensure that the amended Food and Drugs Act mandates the development of regulations for consumer health products that are distinct from those for prescription products, thereby ensuring the consistent regulation of all health products intended for self-care.
These are all consumer health products. They should all be regulated consistently.
Download: Consumer Health Products Canada briefing note for greater detail.
For more information, contact Consumer Health Products Canada (formerly NDMAC) at info@chpcanada.ca.
