Regulations pertaining to health, therapeutic and personal care products (non-prescription drugs) and workplace chemicals all serve to minimize health risks to citizens while maximizing their safety. Although health and personal care product safety standards in Canada and the United States are amongst the highest in the world, further collaboration between the regulatory agencies will reduce costs for manufacturers of pharmaceutical and therapeutic products and improve the efficiency of the regulatory decision making process. This will, in turn, minimize delays in bringing health and consumer health products to the marketplace without compromising the safety, efficacy and quality of the products.
Increased regulatory cooperation in the area of health and personal care products and workplace chemicals will create efficiencies, reduce inspection duplication, enable products to be brought to market more quickly, facilitate trade, and lessen the potential for classification and labelling confusion.
During the winter and spring of 2012, the various Health and Personal Care and Workplace Chemicals-related working group Canadian and American co-leads coordinated the completion of the following RCC work plans:
- Electronic submission gateway (or PDF 32KB)
- Over-the-counter products – common monographs (or PDF 35KB)
- Good manufacturing practices (or PDF 28KB)
- Classification and labelling of chemicals (workplace hazards) (or PDF 15KB)
Over the last few months, the working groups have benefited from comments provided by stakeholders regarding the text of the work plans for each of the Joint Action Plan initiatives. The work plans posted above serve as the basis for efforts between the Canadian andUnited Statesgovernments toward implementation of RCC Joint Action Plan initiatives, and include ongoing opportunities for stakeholder input and engagement with the Working Groups. Each work plan will be adjusted as work progresses to keep them relevant and forward looking. Questions or comments regarding work plan content should be directed to the Canadian and American points of contact indicated at the bottom of the work plan documents.
For more information, please see What the Joint Action Plan Means for Health and Personal Care Products and Workplace Chemicals.