Drug controls

Finds that testing for safety and effectiveness of prescrption drugs in Canada takes place almost exclusively before medications are approved and that there are “few regulatory obligations once a product reaches the market.”Assesses the Canadian post-market systems of drug surveillance -  “pharmacovigilance” - and finds that there is no national system to test drugs for safety after they reach the market.

A form for consumers to report side effects to drugs and other health products to the Canada Vigilance Program. Consumers/patients can report adverse reactions (also known as side effects) to health products, including prescription and non-prescription medications, biologics, natural health products and radiopharmaceuticals using this form.

A collection of information and advice gathered at the policy symposium "Safe and sound: optimizing prescribing behaviours" held in Montreal in 2007 to assist in the continued development of Canada’s National Pharmaceuticals Strategy (NPS).

A site that is operated by Public Citizen out of Washington DC. Provides a limited amount of information on each drug without having to subscribe to the service. Also produces a book which is updated periodically. Free fact sheets available on the site with such topics as “Ten Rules for Safer Drug Use.”

MedEffect, launched in 2009, is Health Canada’s initiative to make it easier for consumers, patients, and health professionals to report adverse reactions and side effects, obtain new safety information on drugs and other health products, and learn and better understand the importance of reporting side effects.

Describes the distinction between advertising to promote the sale of a drug and activities that are not primarily intended to promote the sale of a drug (e.g., education, scientific exchange). These are the regulations that prohibit Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs.

Online discussion with The Push to Prescribe (Women’s Press, 2009) editor Anne Rochon Ford and contributors Colleen Fuller and Abby Lippman on how drugs are produced, regulated, marketed, and used in ways that affect many aspects of everyday life, and the extent of these effects, and their special meaning for women.

Prescription drugs account for an increasing proportion of Canada’s growing health care system with rising costs that governments in this country are seeking ways to restrain.  The greater use of generic drugs, for which Canadians pay some of the highest prices in the world, accounts for a significant portion of these rising costs.  The Health Council of Canada commissioned this independent discussion paper to provide Canadians with some further insight into the generic drug sector and potential options to reduce generic drug prices.

Examines activities financed by drug companies to promote sales by expanding the pool of patients potentially treated by their products, when no benefit in terms of reduced morbidity is likely.

Argues that the breast cancer benefit of raloxifene may only be useful to a very small number of women.