A natural health advocate is raising "alarm bells" that Budget 2024 could jeopardize food and drug safety and the discretion of physicians and natural health professionals.Shawn Buckley, president of the National Health Product Protection Association called out the changes in his discussion paper Alarm Bells in Health Policy: the Hidden Changes in Bill C-69.The Budget Implementation Act, 2024 would expand Health Canada's regulatory powers over the off-label use of drugs and natural health products, particularly impacting doctors and natural health practitioners."Proposed changes will prevent the public from purchasing veterinary drugs for human use, impacting access to medications like ivermectin," Buckley warns."Fines of up to $5 million per day and potential imprisonment for non-compliance with the new rules heighten risks for healthcare providers, including medical doctors."Buckley believes both the restrictive and permissive aspects of the legislation have problems."These changes could enable Health Canada to approve drugs based on partial data or decisions made by foreign regulatory authorities, potentially lowering safety standards," Buckley writes."If these broad powers are given to Health Canada, it would be a huge regulatory overreach affecting the autonomy of healthcare practitioners and the rights of patients."Buckley also warns the proposed changes infringe on provincial jurisdiction over health and could lead to legal challenges.This is the second consecutive year that Buckley has opposed health measures in a budget bill. Budget 2023 required natural cure providers to present the same extensive and extensive clinical proof that pharmaceutical companies must issue to put new drugs on the market.Read more: Advocate claims federal budget put health food industry in peril (July 2, 2023)"The Government of Canada has, once again, included changes to food and drug law in a Budget Bill—circumventing scrutiny by the Standing Committee on Health, and instead going through the Standing Committee on Finance, which lacks specific expertise in food and drug law," Buckley warns."It’s unacceptable for non-budgetary changes to be buried within budget bills."Changes to the Food and Drugs Act would give the health minister sweeping powers that veto the normal safety checks of regulators and discretion by health professionals.The revised act would read, "the Minister may, by order, on any conditions that the Minister considers necessary, exempt a person — or any food, therapeutic product or activity, or any class of foods, therapeutic products or activities, in relation to a person . . ."The minister could make such decrees "in the public interest" if the food, product or activity "is unlikely to result in . . . unacceptable health, safety or, if applicable, environmental risks or . . . [has] an unacceptable degree of uncertainty" in those areas.The changes also say, "the Minister may rely on a portion of a decision of, or a portion of any document or information produced by, a foreign regulatory authority."Buckley says the minister could cherry-pick the data."Ironically, we could have a foreign regulator reject access to a food or drug in their country and yet Health Canada could rely on the information given to the foreign regulator to approve the food or drug for Canada," he writes."We again have a test that is not a health test, it is an undefined public interest test with no clear threshold for Health Canada to meet."The proposed changes are "unbelievable and unexplainable" to Buckley, who said they will allow food and drugs to be bought and sold "fraudulently" that were "adulterated" or "made in unsanitary conditions . . . without complying with the safety lessons we have learned.""Off-label use is a health decision made by health care professionals concerning an individual patient’s unique circumstances. These decisions are made as professional judgements to obtain the best health outcomes. Interfering with this will lead to poor health outcomes and further centralize the control of health policy with the federal government," he warns.
A natural health advocate is raising "alarm bells" that Budget 2024 could jeopardize food and drug safety and the discretion of physicians and natural health professionals.Shawn Buckley, president of the National Health Product Protection Association called out the changes in his discussion paper Alarm Bells in Health Policy: the Hidden Changes in Bill C-69.The Budget Implementation Act, 2024 would expand Health Canada's regulatory powers over the off-label use of drugs and natural health products, particularly impacting doctors and natural health practitioners."Proposed changes will prevent the public from purchasing veterinary drugs for human use, impacting access to medications like ivermectin," Buckley warns."Fines of up to $5 million per day and potential imprisonment for non-compliance with the new rules heighten risks for healthcare providers, including medical doctors."Buckley believes both the restrictive and permissive aspects of the legislation have problems."These changes could enable Health Canada to approve drugs based on partial data or decisions made by foreign regulatory authorities, potentially lowering safety standards," Buckley writes."If these broad powers are given to Health Canada, it would be a huge regulatory overreach affecting the autonomy of healthcare practitioners and the rights of patients."Buckley also warns the proposed changes infringe on provincial jurisdiction over health and could lead to legal challenges.This is the second consecutive year that Buckley has opposed health measures in a budget bill. Budget 2023 required natural cure providers to present the same extensive and extensive clinical proof that pharmaceutical companies must issue to put new drugs on the market.Read more: Advocate claims federal budget put health food industry in peril (July 2, 2023)"The Government of Canada has, once again, included changes to food and drug law in a Budget Bill—circumventing scrutiny by the Standing Committee on Health, and instead going through the Standing Committee on Finance, which lacks specific expertise in food and drug law," Buckley warns."It’s unacceptable for non-budgetary changes to be buried within budget bills."Changes to the Food and Drugs Act would give the health minister sweeping powers that veto the normal safety checks of regulators and discretion by health professionals.The revised act would read, "the Minister may, by order, on any conditions that the Minister considers necessary, exempt a person — or any food, therapeutic product or activity, or any class of foods, therapeutic products or activities, in relation to a person . . ."The minister could make such decrees "in the public interest" if the food, product or activity "is unlikely to result in . . . unacceptable health, safety or, if applicable, environmental risks or . . . [has] an unacceptable degree of uncertainty" in those areas.The changes also say, "the Minister may rely on a portion of a decision of, or a portion of any document or information produced by, a foreign regulatory authority."Buckley says the minister could cherry-pick the data."Ironically, we could have a foreign regulator reject access to a food or drug in their country and yet Health Canada could rely on the information given to the foreign regulator to approve the food or drug for Canada," he writes."We again have a test that is not a health test, it is an undefined public interest test with no clear threshold for Health Canada to meet."The proposed changes are "unbelievable and unexplainable" to Buckley, who said they will allow food and drugs to be bought and sold "fraudulently" that were "adulterated" or "made in unsanitary conditions . . . without complying with the safety lessons we have learned.""Off-label use is a health decision made by health care professionals concerning an individual patient’s unique circumstances. These decisions are made as professional judgements to obtain the best health outcomes. Interfering with this will lead to poor health outcomes and further centralize the control of health policy with the federal government," he warns.
