Drug Shortages
March 8, 2025
CAPDM Submission to Health Canada’s consultation on proposed amendments to regulations to address health product shortages in Canada
Our comments are anchored in the fact that pharmaceutical distribution is facing significant financial challenges coupled with a concerning lack of government attention and investment in its future sustainability, despite the industry’s critical role of delivering over 90% of all medicines consumed in Canada. Furthermore, the challenges are compounded by external pressures, including the effects of U.S. tariff uncertainty and other geopolitical risks. It is only a matter of time before the downstream impacts on the supply chain become evident, including further distribution centre closures and a noticeable decline in the services we rely on, especially for remote communities, which are the costliest to serve. Distributors want to be in a position of strength to support the Government of Canada on the issue of drug shortages, but small, regional distributors (who bring competition to the market) are hurting and further regulation in this uncertain, inflationary environment will only make it harder to keep the lights on.
Read CAPDM’s submission for full comments and recommendations.
February 27, 2025
A Path Forward: Collaborative Solutions to Strengthen Canada's Drug Supply
As drug shortages continue to escalate both globally and within Canada, driven by a complex mix of economic pressures, regulatory barriers, and lean supply chain limitations, the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association (CGPA) and the Canadian Association for Pharmacy Distribution Management (CAPDM) have collaboratively developed a comprehensive report aimed at finding sustainable solutions.
This report provides a clear and actionable roadmap for addressing Canada’s growing drug shortage crisis, highlighting key collaborative solutions essential for ensuring the consistent availability of critical medications to meet the needs of patients nationwide. With Canada’s pharmaceutical supply chain under increasing pressure, the report offers strategic guidance on the areas where action is most needed, emphasizing the importance of partnerships among all stakeholders within the healthcare ecosystem to strengthen the supply chain.
Priority Actions:
- Enhance collaboration through early, proactive, and more consistent sharing of information to respond to and mitigate potential shortages.
- Harmonize and ease the burden of regulatory requirements to enable greater access to the global drug supply.
- Invest in supply chain diversification.
- Establish conditions to increase prices for medicines that are critical and vulnerable to drug shortages.
- Increase buffer stock, with appropriate compensation and shared risk, to allow time for system-wide responses.
This report is a result of extensive consultations with drug manufacturers, healthcare professional and practitioner organizations, hospital group purchasing organizations, government, academia, and other important supply chain influencers.
The time to act is now. By working together with all key stakeholders, we can enhance the resilience and sustainability of Canada's drug supply, ensuring stable access to life-saving medications for all Canadians.
Download the full report here.
July 29, 2024
CAPDM Submission to Health Canada’s Consultation: Notice of intent to amend the regulations to address health product shortages in Canada
Pharmaceutical distributors operate in a market that is struggling for sustainability, despite the industry’s critical role of delivering over 90% of all medicines consumed in Canada. Distribution funding, largely a factor of the price of a drug, is controlled by government, while expenses are subject to market forces. Since 2007, funding has decreased dramatically with generic medicine price reductions, while operations and regulatory costs continue to increase. In a market once comprised of over a dozen pharmaceutical wholesalers, there remain just five and only two of national scope. While we support various aspects of the plan, it is with this context that we express our concern about several of its proposed solutions which imply a further and costly regulatory burden on our industry. This is compounded by the absence of any mention of the underlying economic causes of drug shortages and the supply chain’s ability to prevent and mitigate them.
Read CAPDM’s submission for full comments and recommendations.