I think that one goes to me.
There were three parts, as I understand it, to your question.
The first was about where the data goes with respect to ADR--adverse drug reactions. The reports of serious and unexpected adverse drug reactions or adverse product reactions for natural health products go to the same database as the ones for drugs. The marketed health products directorate would collect that data and do the same thing they would do for drugs. They would look for a signal and whether there is something that should be a concern, and they would raise that up through the same process. So it's collected and processed in the same manner. Companies are required to submit the severe and unexpected adverse reactions but not the ones that are anticipated, such as, for example, flushing and things like that. So it's a similar process.
With respect to research, when we came into play we were funding research. A lot of it was seed funding that would go towards helping other applications for research down the road. It was considered successful by many. But it was anticipated to be a four-year program, and it has wound up. Now, there could be debate about what happens with that. We respond to the will of Canadians. When it was put in, it was a four-year program, and that has finished. So that's what happened there.
With respect to the refusals and the ones we've not licensed, we've licensed approximately, in total today, about 7,000. We've refused about 6,400. So it's close to 50-50, but it is just over to the positive side.
The reasons we refuse a product are varied. And I'll be honest; the reason we refuse them is usually not because the product is found to be toxic. That is why we use a risk-based compliance approach. If a product application comes to us and we're not aware of the toxicity, we don't take action against that product. It would only be if there was a toxicity or a concern about it in that regard. When an application is refused, the usual reason is that they have not provided the data we asked them to provide. For example, they may have a product that has three medicinal ingredients in it, and they will only provide the data to support one. We will write and ask them to provide data for the other two, and they'll come back and say, “How about this claim?” That happens all the time.
We're working with industry. I will say for sure that the quality of the applications we've been receiving over the last year has been better than it was for the applications we received previously. The training sessions and the dialogue with industry and working together to come up with an improved process is working. But we still have to process those applications that came in back when we first started the regulations. And that's why there's some delay.
The usual reason for refusing an application is because we have been unable to obtain the required data on the ingredients listed for the product.