Statement made on 24 November 2011 by Senator Catherine Callbeck
Hon. Catherine S. Callbeck:
Honourable senators, my question is to the Leader of the Government in the Senate, and it also is about the Interim Auditor General's report.
The report said that the review process for pre-market drug submissions, determining whether claims made by industry regarding a drug's safety, effectiveness and quality were supported by evidence, takes much longer than the department's service standards.
To give an example of that, the average for generic drug reviews is 353 days, almost twice the standard of 180 days. For over-the-counter drugs, the numbers are even worse. A review takes, on average, 539 days, more than two and a half times longer than the department's standard of 210. Canadians are denied more affordable and effective treatments because these drugs are delayed in going to market.
How does Health Canada plan to improve these performance levels so that it meets its own standards and gets drugs on the market more quickly?
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