Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll start with the introductions. We have Diana Dowthwaite, who's our director general of the health products and food branch inspectorate; Dr. Chris Turner, who's the director general of marketed health products; Mr. David Lee, who is the director of th

Health committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to be here today before this committee to provide an overview of Canada's post-market activities for pharmaceuticals. In my opening remarks I will provide an overview of the main components of our program, the measures the depart

Health committee  No, I think we're fine. We'll just respond to the questions. Thank you.

Health committee  I would like to emphasize, Dr. Bennett, that you're absolutely right that we are increasing our efforts, making concerted efforts to get communications out to the public using a variety of sources. We have put into place mechanisms such as the MedEffect website that I talked abou

Health committee  I'll invite my colleague Mr. Lee to respond to that.

Health committee  I will begin my answer in French, but with your permission—

Health committee  All right. It is because I would like to give you an accurate answer. We are presently looking at our resource base, further to the AG's report and further to the investments that have been made in the past. We're considering what resources we need to carry out our regulatory r

Health committee  So you're seeking the definition of post-market surveillance?

Health committee  I'll invite Dr. Turner to respond with regard to the definition of post-market surveillance.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  Maybe I'll tell you how I look at it in terms of post-market surveillance. Basically, when a drug or health product is out on the market, we use a variety of means to collect information on that drug's use out in the market. Through MedEffect, through our Canadian adverse drug

Health committee  We have a variety of partnerships in this country, with health care professionals; with provincial and territorial governments; with our partners such as the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the health technology body CADAS; and with international regulatory agencies

Health committee  We're doing a lot more of it, at a variety of levels.

Health committee  Yes, we are much more proactive in trying to seek opportunities to share work with them and to share reports of post-market surveillance. If they're picking up any signals in those countries, then we would have this rapid sharing of information.

Health committee  It was done before, but we've recognized that it needs to be done much, much more proactively than ever before.