In the aftermath of the public relations fiasco surrounding its study of the dairy growth hormone bovine somatotropin, Health Canada has decided to create a new office to improve public consultations and enhance the credibility of drug licensing decisions.
Ian Shugart, an assistant deputy health minister, told the Senate agriculture committee that the new office will be aimed at making the drug approval process more transparent and credible.
“Our concern (about credibility) has been growing and it became evident,” he said May 13. “We would have the capacity on a permanent basis and as a routine manner of doing business to track public concerns in various fields … to tap into their concerns, understand them and engage in dialogue.”
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He said the goal would be to provide “a window” into the drug approval system for those who want it.
Added assistant deputy minister Joe Losos, in charge of the health protection branch: “We would like this public consultation to be professionally run and institutionalized so that the public health is a team game.”
The announcement came after public health advocates, some dissident Health Canada scientists and the Senate agriculture committee questioned whether Health Canada’s drug approval system is too biased toward corporate interests and too little to public health and safety.
During explosive Senate hearings, there were allegations that internal scientific doubts about the safety of BST were overruled after Monsanto applied pressure.
After public uproar and two independent scientific reviews of the evidence, Health Canada last January said it would not approve BST because it poses health risks to treated dairy cattle.
Yet while deputy health minister David Dodge told senators last week the BST file is inactive, he said he would not be “totally surprised” if Monsanto re-applies.
No room for doubt
On that file and others, he said, it is important that the credibility of the government’s drug and product approval system be above question.
He noted the distrust that citizens of the United Kingdom have in their government in the aftermath of the mad cow disease scare.
“It behooves us all here in Canada to take note of the fragility of the confidence that is out there in the world.”
However, Dodge was cool to a recommendation from the Senate committee and others that an outside, “independent” investigation be held into the health protection branch.
He said there have been many suggestions for improvement and Health Canada is acting. Any further investigations could slow down the department’s work.
The federal auditor general can investigate any time he wants.
“I have no objection at all, as deputy minister, of having some independent board come and examine us, but quite frankly, we must get on with the job,” he said. “We have had enough advice to get on with the job. If in two years you think we have not done it well enough, then I am accountable for that and I can be put out with less than 24 hours notice.”
Dodge, the powerful former deputy finance minister brought into Health Canada last year to spruce up the department’s image and performance, said he is committed to reform.
“We must have a transparent system before allowing decisions to be made.”
