COVID-19 Bulletin #19 – July 14, 2020
Yesterday the Natural and Non-Prescription Health Products Directorate (NNHPD) of Health Canada issued a Notice informing stakeholders of the elimination of their interim measures related to expedited product and site licensing for alcohol-based hand sanitizers.
Recall that back in late March, NNHPD introduced interim measures to enable expedited product and site licensing for alcohol-based hand sanitizers to address the shortage of these products during the coronavirus pandemic. These measures provided companies that intended to manufacture, package, label and/or sell alcohol-based hand sanitizers with a simplified pathway to obtaining the required authorizations.
Health Canada has since completed a forecasting analysis of the supply and demand of alcohol-based hand sanitizers and has determined that there is currently sufficient domestic production capacity to meet the demand over the next 12 months. Additionally, NNHPD recently launch their new web form providing electronic validation of Class 1 NHP applications. As such, NNHPD has informed stakeholders that they will now resume regular service standards and requirements for new product and site licence applications for alcohol-based hand sanitizers.
What does this mean for current product licences and interim COVID-19 site licences?
– all existing licences remain valid; no action is required at this time from license holders
– NNHPD will process amendment requests for interim site licences with the normal service standard of 35 business days
– to continue to sell an authorized alcohol-based hand sanitizer beyond the end of the pandemic, a valid site licence will be required
Please refer to the Notice for additional information for future product and site licence applicants of alcohol-based hand sanitizers.
