TOP STORY: Will Health Canada Relent on NHPs?

Will Health Canada Relent on NHPs? CHFA Declares Victory
by Robert McMaster

News reports indicate that Health Canada is about to file regulatory amendments to be published in the Canada Gazette that would allow a large number of multi-ingredient NHP submissions to be confirmed for full approval. The CHFA refers to such products as those ‘caught in the product licensing application review queue.’ This category includes many of the most popular and best-selling products that containing multiple ingredients that Health Canada has declined thus far to approve. Were Health Canada to refuse to approve such products they would be effectively banned from the marketplace. This would likely provoke an explosive reaction from the manufacturers, retailers and consumers that focus on calls on Members of Parliament to overrule Health Canada in the public interest. Rather than face an inevitable defeat Health Canada has signaled to the CHFA that it will change the rules to accommodate multiple-ingredient NHPs.
The CHFA is claiming credit for this regulatory advance. In a statements leaked to Dicentra the group says, “A Draft Regulatory Amendment will be published in Canada Gazette Part 1 prior to Expo West as we requested (emphasis added), on Saturday May 8.” The CHFA concludes that “we may see final regulations by the end of July.”

Meanwhile Shawn Buckley, head of the Natural Health Products Protective Association told the Georgia Straight, “What’s happening is a train wreck. We’re losing access to products, many that have been on the market for decades, and we’re saying, ‘This is our first crack at trying to regulate these products.’ I don’t think anyone intended what is happening. So let’s take a step back and just have a review.”