Health Canada Committed to Transparency

Nowhere is confidence and transparency more important than in the decisions made that affect the health and safety of Canadians — and Health Canada is delivering.

The launch of the Regulatory Transparency and Openness Framework demonstrates Health Canada’s commitment to transparency. It makes Canada a world leader in the posting of practical drug safety review summaries, ahead of both the U.S. and the EU.

The summary safety review for acne drug Diane-35 is the first of many summary safety reviews that will be published in the coming months. Summaries of safety reviews of high interest will be posted first, followed by routine posting of summaries of all new drug safety reviews.

These accessible, and plain-language summary drug safety reviews will provide doctors and patients with information to help them make health-related decisions. Full-length technical reviews, with minor redactions only for legal purposes, will also be made available upon request.

Canadians will now have access to more drug safety information than ever before. But publishing the findings of safety reviews is only the beginning, and we recognize there is always room for improvement. That is why, now featured on our website, we have invited Canadians to let us know how we are doing and how we can do better.We’ll continue to work to make sure we can be more open and transparent with Canadians going forward.