Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told reporters 250,000 bottles of children’s pain and fever medicine will be delivered to the province this weekend..On Tuesday, Smith held a question and answer session in Calgary at the request of the media..In total, Alberta secured five million bottles of children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen for families, but there have been some delays..READ MORE: Alberta's government secures large supply of children’s pain relief medication, 5 million bottles."There's a couple of things we had to do and are working through with the new supplier, Health Canada has to go through and examine the manufacturer, they also have to examine our import facilities," Smith said.."We had to make sure the formulation was the same as we would sell for generic products here. We had to get French and English packaging approved.".The Alberta government and Alberta Health Services (AHS) secured a supply of five million units of acetaminophen and ibuprofen from Atabay Pharmaceuticals and Fine Chemicals.."So as a result, we have our first shipment arriving on the weekend," Smith said.."It's going to be for AHS use and there are 250,000 bottles.".The remaining 4.75 million bottles are going to be subject to an additional delay for retail use because they must have a childproof cap, Smith added.."But the good news is that our AHS hospitals will have the first shipment by this weekend. We respect Health Canada has a role in making sure that we have the safest product possible on the shelf," said Smith.."We're just working with the manufacturer to make sure that's in place so that we can make it available for retail use. And look I don't want to rush it out." ."We certainly want to make sure that when the supply arrives people feel confident in it. It really was just a matter of us meeting regulatory conditions and that was the last condition we needed to meet.".The medication is manufactured at a Health Canada-approved facility overseas. Packaging has to follow Health Canada guidelines..The retail cost to the consumer will be in line with the average cost for this type of medication. Drugs imported to Canada must meet safety, quality and efficacy regulations set out by Health Canada in order to be authorized for import.."It's been a process, it's just taken a little bit longer than we expected, but the first shipment is arriving this weekend for AHS," Smith said.
