The Marketed Health Products Directorate published its 2024 adverse reactions (ARs) reporting through the Canada Vigilance Program (CVP). CVP collects reports of suspected adverse ARs to health products, including pharmaceuticals, natural health products, biologics, radiopharmaceuticals, disinfectants, and sanitizers. These reports come from various sources:
- mandatory submissions from market authorization holders and hospitals,
- voluntary reports from the public (consumers, patients, and healthcare professionals).
It’s important to note that these reported associations reflect the reporter’s observations and opinions and are not an official Health Canada assessment of causation.
In 2024, the CVP received 202,008 AR reports in Canada, representing 76,638 domestic AR cases. Of these cases:
- 78% were classified as serious.
- 26% required hospitalization.
- 3% were life-threatening.
- 8% reported a death.
During this period, 13 potential safety issues were identified from AR reports, with two currently under review to determine if they are safety signals. The 2024 AR data also aided in validating and assessing safety signals from other sources, such as information from foreign regulators, market authorization holders, and scientific literature. The full report is available here.
