With the approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine in Canada at the close of 2020 and with large-scale vaccination programs underway, in 2021, Canada transitions to a post COVID-19 reality.
In 2020, activity in the regulated health product sphere was largely focussed on ensuring that products necessary to combat COVID-19 were available in Canada as quickly as possible. At the start of the pandemic Health Canada issued a number of interim orders to facilitate the rapid coming to market of new and existing drugs, natural health products and medical devices. These interim measures relaxed regulatory requirements allowing certain non-compliant products to be marketed in Canada (for example, those with a foreign product approval number rather than a Canadian product approval number).
In parallel, Canadians were flooded with messages encouraging individuals to sanitize their personal environments. This translated into a marketing opportunity for many businesses to supply products necessary to meet the demand, including hand sanitizers, disinfectant cleaners, face masks etc. For many businesses, this meant branching into new lines of business (distilleries manufacturing hand sanitizer is an example that comes to mind).
Taken together, 2020 saw an unprecedented volume of new health products (and general consumer products making health claims) coming to market in Canada from both old and new players in the arena.
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This piece was originally published on dentons.com
To read other articles in the Dentons’ Pick of Canadian Regulatory Trends to Watch in 2021 series, click here.
