Madam Chair, I know the first line that my scriptwriter has put here echoes everybody's sentiment: I am pleased to be here today. We are having an important discussion tonight, and my portion of it will reflect something that is critically important. It is the process that goes on all the time outside of a pandemic, but is never more important than during a pandemic. We are here to discuss the regulatory modernization and the achievements relating to facilitating access to much-needed health products for Canadians.
Health Canada has played in the past, and will continue to play, a key role in protecting the health and safety of Canadians, and 2020 has been a really challenging year in that regard.
Our government's top priority has been to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this, we have focused on implementing innovative and agile regulatory measures to help prioritize and expedite the regulatory review of drugs and medical devices, including critical COVID-19 health products. We have had to do this without compromising Canada's high standards for safety, efficacy and quality.
There are obviously some pushes every now and again for politicians to set the agenda as to when such-and-such is going to happen or when so-and-so is going to be available. However, politicians should not be making those decisions. We should leave them to the experts and the people whose task it is to keep us all safe.
Our efforts to modernize regulatory pathways did not begin as a response to the global pandemic. We have been at this for a while. In fact, for several years, Health Canada has mobilized on many fronts to improve access to the products that Canadians need for taking care of their health and the health of their families.
Since 2017, Health Canada has been working on the regulatory review of the drugs and devices initiative to improve access to needed health products for Canadians. This has included strengthening the way the department collaborates with other regulators on the scientific review of drugs and medical devices. It has allowed Canadians faster access to many therapies, and so far this has been done in the areas of cancer, blindness, pediatrics, depression, opioid addiction, which is a major issue in British Columbia, and HIV home testing. Many more products are now coming to Canada as a result of these actions.
Health Canada has improved its scientific capacity to review more affordable generic medicines and has also created accelerated pathways to provide earlier access to promising new drugs for patients. This is what we are seeing demonstrated today. For example, Health Canada has approved three novel cell-based gene therapy products, including one for the treatment of pediatric cancer patients. There is also a new IV formulation for five difficult-to-treat bacterial infections and another treatment for vision loss due to inherited retinal conditions. In other words, there are Canadians who gain faster access to therapies that directly help, thanks to these regulatory efforts.
Additionally, Health Canada launched an ambitious regulatory innovation agenda, and as part of these reviews, stakeholders made it clear that regulatory agility was key to economic growth and innovation. The pandemic has reinforced the need, of course, for the regulatory agility and flexibility that we need for getting health product oversight and a principled focus of the agenda's initiatives.
Health Canada has also launched additional temporary emergency measures to help companies bring urgently needed health products and medical supplies for COVID-19 into our market. The measures include solutions intended to broaden access to clinical trials, expedite the regulatory review of health products and support enhanced management of product shortages. They have provided an opportunity to pilot many of the improvements planned as part of the agenda.
As a result of these measures, Health Canada has approved 4,000 hand sanitizers, 495 medical devices, two drug treatments and 46 testing devices, and it has done all of this since March. The department has also received three vaccine submissions, with more expected in the near future. This has made a tremendous impact on Canada's leading response to COVID-19.
Canadians and health care workers can count on Health Canada to ensure that their communities have access to the products they need to stay safe from the risks of COVID-19. Moving forward, Health Canada will build on the administrative and regulatory agility that has been put in place in response to COVID-19 to further support industry in providing timely access to much-needed health products.
Medical devices are playing a critical role in the public health response to COVID-19. Many Canadians also rely on these products to maintain and improve their health and well-being. Health Canada is continuing important work for the medical devices action plan.
Health Canada has already accomplished a great deal under this plan. For example, in December 2019, Health Canada became the first regulator worldwide to bring into force regulations that required hospitals to report all serious adverse drug reactions and medical device incidents. This will be particularly useful in the pandemic, because we will be able to identify any safety issues Health Canada will need to take action on.
Finally, Health Canada established a new scientific advisory committee on health products for women. The committee was created to provide Health Canada with timely patient-centred scientific and clinical advice on current and emerging issues regarding women's health and the regulation of medical devices and drugs.
More important, however, is the rapid regulatory response, which has been key to supporting access to health products during the pandemic. Health Canada has introduced several innovative measures to maximize regulatory agility while maintaining protections for health and safety. The amount of work that has occurred on the regulatory side over the past few months is incredible. It is truly a historic response. For instance, the Minister of Health has signed five interim orders with respect to health products related to COVID-19.
An interim order is one of the fastest mechanisms available to the federal government to help make health products available to address larger scale public health emergencies. These include expedited pathways for clinical trials and access to drugs and medical devices. These new pathways have been successful in bringing COVID therapies faster to Canada.
Due to the high impact of illness from COVID-19, Health Canada and other highly regarded international regulators are prioritizing and expediting the review of all submissions for COVID-19 treatments. Health Canada is working with all our international partners to share information, to discuss the scientific evidence we are gathering and to ensure Canada's approach is aligned globally.
While we are working hard to give Canadians access to COVID-19 drugs, personal protective equipment and medical devices as fast as possible, we will not compromise Canada's safety, efficacy and quality standards. The agile response needed for the pandemic is rooted in the innovation and vision for a modern regulatory review of drugs and devices. We are proud of our accomplishments to date, our regulatory leadership and the ability to respond to an unprecedented health crisis.
I now have some questions for the minister.
It is clear that successive and robust border measures, including quarantine and travel restrictions, have had an impact on reducing travel-related COVID-19 infections in Canada. I would like to add that, from the British Columbia perspective, an analysis of where our initial infections came from surprised many people because they thought airliners coming over from Asia brought the virus with them.
In fact, the vast majority of initial infections in British Columbia came from eastern Canada, and they got into eastern Canada as a result of people coming back from spring break. A lot of those people said to close the border, but I would not like to try to keep any of my buddies out of the country if they were coming back from their spring break. We actually had an obligation to let them back.
Despite the fact that essential workers are allowed to enter the country, the social and economic impact of travel restrictions has put a strain on Canadians and our economy. Considering certain U.S. states have lower rates of infection than others, from a border perspective, and to reduce the impact of border restrictions on Canadians, what would it take for Canada to allow selective re-entry from certain U.S. states?
