Consultants at Paul Dick and Associates are lobbying to change Canadian regulations to allow the sale and use of natural medicines for animals.
”These products are often readily available to farmers in other countries that either have reduced regulatory burden or a large enough market to justify a high regulatory burden, the consultants said.
Farmers there have access to innovative products that optimize the health of animals, allowing them to better resist disease. Importantly, these products will not contribute to antimicrobial resistance which the World Health Organization says is the greatest threat to human and animal health, said Paul Dick and Associates.
“There are significant regulatory challenges for non-drug products in Canada,” sad Lauren Carde, vice president of operations and regulatory affairs for Paul Dick & Associates, a full-service consulting firm for the human and animal health industries.
“If they don’t meet all the requirements for a veterinary health product or a feed, they are pushed into the drug category, which is really problematic because these products are not drugs and the drug regulations don't make sense for non-drug products,” she said.
The regulations do not permit products lacking a long history of use, which prevents new and innovative products from pursuing registration this way, she said. New feed ingredients take up to three years to gain approval under the Animal Feed Program because of long regulatory review periods and a lack of service standards.
Canada is a small player and represents only two to three per cent of the total global animal health market.
“We have a high regulatory burden and a small market,” said Carde. “Our small market size combined with stringent regulatory requirements mean that even our homegrown companies are choosing to skip Canada and are taking their products to other countries instead.”
Several years ago the Canadian Food inspection Agency de-regulated the marketing of soil amendments and crop-promotion products, leaving farmers to judge whether they are worth the expense. Before de-regulation, marketers had to prove they work as advertised and are safe.
That Is the basic standard for animal health products.
