Health committee  In fact, you really have to look at it device by device. There are certainly instances we could cite of the product being withdrawn from the Canadian market before it was withdrawn from the market in the U.S., for example. When there is a serious issue—say, with a medical devic

Health committee  I can assure the committee that we're well aware of some of these instances that have been reported in the press, and we are absolutely following up. I'm not in a position to get into specific cases and what may or may not be done, but certainly we have an enforcement team, we ha

Health committee  Mr. Chair, I'm not sure I can add a lot to what the minister said, but I can assure the member that we have been doing a lot of work to prepare for the rollout of the new program. On the timing of that, I'm not really in a position to add a lot more to the minister's comment.

Health committee  I think that would be more a question to direct to the government.

Health committee  Just to assure the committee, Health Canada takes drug shortages very seriously. This is a phenomenon that does not just affect Canada; I can certainly assure the committee of that. Part of it has to do with the structure of the global pharmaceutical industry. There are cases i

Health committee  Mr. Chair, on this issue I would say that Health Canada sees the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act as an important part of the government's strategy on dealing with the opioid crisis, in particular around the issue of stigma reduction. We have heard anecdotally that there has bee

Health committee  Mr. Chair, just to clarify that—maybe not for the benefit of the member, because I know that there's obviously a good familiarity, but maybe for the benefit of the committee—we administer a number of regimes. Sometimes in the press and sometimes publicly the activities under each

Health committee  Actually, if there is an issue, it would be useful to get the material.

Health committee  I think this a question, Mr. Chair, that a number of us could probably speak to. I can quickly start for Health Canada. I will assure the member that when our ministry is supporting the government in the design and delivery of health programs, we do try systematically to look a

Health committee  Mr. Chair, this was an issue that Health Canada examined a number of years ago. The government early in its tenure took a decision not to proceed with regulations to require tamper-resistant formulations. I want to be clear that certainly Health Canada encourages companies to c

Health committee  The other concern is that with that technology, these particular medications are materially more expensive. They're actually a lot more expensive for patients than the non-tamper-resistant formulations. We would encourage companies to bring those forward, but there's a real polic

Health committee  Sure. I think as the member may know, under the Pest Control Products Act, there's a requirement every 15 years to go back and kind of re-examine the chemical that's been approved to make sure that there haven't been updates on the science or on the use that might suggest an iss

Health committee  Very briefly, Mr. Chair, there has been a little confusion around the medical device single audit process. Canada has a mandatory system for these kinds of audits. The updated process will be mandatory, but the old process was mandatory as well. The government is not imposing som

Health committee  One thing that has perhaps received a little less attention than the proposed regulatory reforms to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board is the significant changes that are happening in the health portfolio around how drugs are reviewed and approved. A key objective is to st

Health committee  The Treasury Board sets out fairly detailed guidance on how these cost-benefit assessments are to be conducted—