Ottawa – Canadians should have access to the health products they need, when they need them. Today, Health Canada published a plan called Building Resilience: Health Canada’s Plan to Address Health Product Shortages. This plan outlines proposed actions the Department will take over the next four years to help reduce, mitigate and better prevent shortages of health products and their associated harms.
Health Canada engaged with stakeholders throughout 2023, including health care professionals, provinces and territories, Indigenous partners, industry, and patient advocacy associations to better understand the challenges and possible solutions to prevent shortages of health products in Canada.
Parts of this plan propose changes to the Food and Drug Regulations and Medical Devices Regulations. As a result, we have published a Notice of Intent to provide details on the proposed amendments and seek feedback to help inform next steps. Details on how to provide input during the 30-day public consultation period can be found at Canada.ca.
Health Canada remains committed to working with the public, industry, practitioners, patient groups, and other stakeholders. We will keep the public informed about our efforts to address health product shortages through regular updates on our website.