IGMPI India

Serious violations were found at two dozen Canadian drug facilities. Non compliance was found related with the health and safety of consumers and the licenses.

Previously inspection results were kept secret but now it is being shared as a part of ongoing openness and transparency as revealed by Health Canada. As revealed by the star investigation report Canadian drug companies knowingly distributed defective products. The Star had to rely on inspection records provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which inspects Canadian facilities that export drugs south of the border. The Star articles also showed Canadian companies hid, altered and in some cases destroyed test data that showed their products were tainted or potentially unsafe.

The limitations with the health Canada transparency initiative is that the disclosures only show the date and location of the inspection and whether the inspection led to regulatory action but donot give the details of the problems. For eg as per the new data 13 facilities received a non-compliant rating and no longer have a licence, Health Canada refused to say whether in these cases it revoked the licence or the company voluntarily shut down post-inspection.