On March 27, Health Canada hosted a closed-door engagement session with industry stakeholders on revisions to the proposed fees for natural health products. NHPPA’s Shawn Buckley and Veronica Jean attended this meeting, where significant changes to Health Canada’s Cost Recovery plans were announced.
Health Canada announced the following changes to their Cost Recovery plans:
- Reducing fees by 50% by limiting planned additions to their enforcement programs
- Lowering fee ratios for the first four years
- Phasing in fees over seven years starting December 2025
Let us be clear… THIS IS NOT A WIN!
Despite the proposed fee reduction of 50%, multiple natural health product manufacturers in attendance at the session stated they would need to pull 40-90% of their products from the Canadian market. Multiple manufacturers stated they would be forced to cease operations in Canada entirely.
Furthermore, Health Canada openly admits that they have not done a balanced risk/benefit or cost analysis on the effects of imposing these fees. They are focused on “recovering” an estimated $51 million in the first year of this new fee schedule.
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