Health committee  For the numbers of over-the-counter products—that's non-prescription pharmaceuticals—since 1969, there have been over 5,200 products approved. For the natural health products, there have been over 190,000. Again, it's a bit difficult to compare, because for those over 190,000 or 200,000, we don't know how many of those are marketed.

Health committee  There have been 5,200.

Health committee  That's for over-the-counter products, yes.

Health committee  We'd have to come back to you. The ratio of adverse events to the products is very similar between the over-the-counter, non-prescription pharmaceutical products and natural health products. They're very similar.

Health committee  That's right. These products often are side by side on shelves. They're often treating the same things. They are often making the same claims. They're just under two different regulatory frames. We know from talking to consumers that they're not really aware that they're under two different frames.

Health committee  The challenge in the international comparison with respect to natural health products is that there are very different regulatory schemes in different countries. There isn't really a country that has the same system that Canada has. The United States is different. Europe treats them differently.

Health committee  There have been more than 1,000 cases in the last two years, 700 of which were serious.

Health committee  The cost recovery will involve increased resources to do that type of surveillance—to look for that and, when those issues arise, to follow up on those advertising complaints. We now have provisions if we need to levy fines or penalties when companies are not compliant. We have the authority to do that as well.

Health committee  On the consultation space, if I look at all the health products that Health Canada regulates, I think the natural health products sector is the one that has the most consultations. Through the associations, we've had technical briefings; since 2016 we've had over 4,500 consumer and health care professional consultations; and in 2019 alone we met with 70 different companies one-on-one.

Health committee  —access to those products and we want them to be safe, effective and high quality. That's exactly what we want. We use these products every day. As people have said, 73% of Canadians use these products. That 73% was back in 2010. We know that's increased. Through COVID, we know that people have even more interest in terms of having access to products that they select to help maintain their health.

Health committee  I will start with the advertising, then I'll turn it over to Ms. Hollett for the GMP inspection. The first pilot we did was in 2021. We conducted that pilot project to proactively monitor advertising. What the pilot did, through an AI tool, was to look on the web for advertising of natural health products that involved the word “cancer”.

Health committee  The 53 recommendations were to create an entire framework for natural health products, a set of regulations. That's been done.

Health committee  That's been done. I think the comment that Ms. Hollett was making was specifically on one part of the inspections. There was a promise to increase inspections. That's started a bit. What we're at right now is the phase in which.... When the regulations came in, in 2004, we had maybe 50,000 products, maximum.

Health committee  Now we have about 200,000. We have over 800 facilities. There's been a large increase in the industry. In order to ramp up further on inspections, for example, we need additional resources. There are other places where we need additional resources. Part of what we're seeking is for some—not all—of those costs to be borne through cost recovery.

Health committee  We have those numbers.