Natural Health Products: 53 Recommendations of the Standing Committee on Health

Recommendations re: Importation of Human-Use Drugs for Personal Use

37. When the new regulatory framework is implemented, the personal importation policy be reviewed by Health Canada and the Expert Advisory Committee to determine if it is still appropriate and to outline permissible changes.

Status:

1. The Directive allows for personal importation of up to a three-month supply of a drug for an individual's personal use unless prohibited by law, and is comparable to policies in other countries.
2. The Human-use Drugs for Personal Importation Directive applies to many categories of products, such as medical devices, biologics, drugs and NHPs. For ease of reference, a copy of the policy is included in Appendix B.
3. Part of the rationale for the policy relates to Canadians travelling outside of the country, where upon their return they are permitted to import a three-month supply of a drug that they may have begun taking while out of the country.
4. Due to the broad application of this policy, it has been referred to the Legislative Renewal Initiative for consideration.