Canada’s children face barriers to accessing safe and effective medications

We must ensure that children and youth have equitable access to safe, effective and affordable prescription medications, just as Canadians of all ages expect to enjoy.

Both the European Medicines Agency and the United States Food and Drug Administration are empowered to demand paediatric studies when a drug is likely to be prescribed for children, and they receive funding to provide incentives for such work. It is bewildering that Health Canada policies seldom require drug manufacturers to submit paediatric data, even when the data has been made available to other jurisdictions or when use among children and youth is foreseeable. Photograph courtesy of Pixabay

Opinion

BY ISG SENATOR ROSEMARY MOODIE

September 16, 2019

Canadian children do not enjoy the same standards of safety, efficacy, availability, or access to drugs that Canadian adults enjoy. When it comes to prescription drugs, Canadian children and youth are exposed to a variety of health and safety risks from the drugs that they receive, risks that have ...

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