Canadians will now be better informed about drug shortages.
New federal regulations have come into effect that force drug companies to publicly report shortages and if a drug will be discontinued.
Before it was up to the companies to volunteer the information.
CEO of the Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia’s Allison Bodnar says better reporting could lead to a better supply chain.
“Hopefully it will allow government and regulators to better understand the root causes of why these drugs shortages happen. If you don’t understand why they’re happening it makes it challenging to prevent them in the future.”
Bodnar says it’s important the public is informed of changes to drug supplies.
“This allows collaborative mitigation between physician and patient or between pharmacist and patient to say, look, this product is not available or is going to be discontinued shortly so you might want to consider a different drug that can do the same thing.”
The supply changes will be posted on DrugShortagesCanada.ca.
