Health committee  To address the issue of non-prescription drugs, our organization has an expert advisory committee that reviews non-prescription drugs and determines conditions of sale, which is a provincial authority. Those different conditions of sale would be a pharmacist-only sale—a pharmacist would need to be interacting with the sale—to be sold in a pharmacy only, a prescription only, or to be sold anywhere.

Health committee  My understanding of the current regulations is that they can strongly suggest to manufacturers that they take their product off the market once serious adverse reactions are reported, yet they do not have the regulatory power at this point in time to mandate it. I think that would be a step in the right direction for the government agency that oversees the safety of the Canadian public and the use of drugs.

Health committee  In the same regard, in my experience in attending some of the progressive licensing workshops and getting a better understanding of what it means, from my perspective, it doesn't seem as if this is going to take away anything from the pre-market. However, it's going to add to the post-market and put a greater onus on industry, manufacturers, and albeit health professionals to be more accountable, transparent, and aware of what's happening in the post-marketing system.

Health committee  The National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities is honoured to appear before this committee today. Our organization represents most of the provincial and territorial pharmacy regulatory authorities. During this presentation I'll be speaking to the role of the pharmacy regulatory authorities; the regulatory tools that are currently employed, specifically with regard to adverse drug reactions reporting; the challenges posed by mandatory ADR reporting; as well as the opportunity that partnerships could bring.