(Camille Bains/ Canadian Press) — Health Canada needs to be more consistent with other countries when it comes to issuing warnings about the safety risks of certain medications, a University of British Columbia professor says.
Barbara Mintzes, the lead investigator of a new study published Monday, said that between 2007 and 2016, Health Canada issued safety warnings for only 50 per cent of drug-safety issues identified in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.
She joined researchers in analyzing 1,441 advisories over that period and found regulators in all four countries — which have similar demographics — were consistent in the decision to warn their populations over issues with the same medication just 10 per cent of the time. (…)