Health Canada issues temporary direction to close drug oversight gap

The discovery that some hospitals in Ontario and New Brunswick were unknowingly using watered-down chemotherapy drugs has not only led to worry and anger among patients, it’s also prompted plans for lawsuits.

TORONTO - Health Canada says companies involved in the compounding and admixing of medications can continue to do so, but under new oversight conditions.

The conditions are a temporary fix to a jurisdictional grey area believed to have contributed to more than 1,200 patients receiving diluted chemotherapy drugs.

Dr. Supriya Sharma, senior medical adviser with Health Canada, says the conditions will allow companies to continue providing services while Ottawa and the provinces and territories work out a long-term oversight plan.

Compounding and admixing can continue if it is done within a hospital meeting provincial requirements, outside a hospital under the supervision of a provincially licensed pharmacist, or in a manner that meets the licensing and manufacturing requirements of the Food and Drugs Act.

Marchese Hospital Solutions provided the watered down drugs to five hospitals in Ontario and New Brunswick, but has said the problem was with how the drugs were administered at hospitals.

However, the new conditions might not have prevented the incident, as Sharma says Marchese is believed to have been working under appropriate oversight.