Canada Closes Govt Drug Research Labs

Canada's federal Health Department is closing its in-house drugresearch bureau by the end of this month, in a move which is expected to save C$2 million ($1.4 million) a year.

The bureau's function has been to provide information and support to the drug regulatory agency in its assessment of new products, and to monitor any problems once the drug has been approved. This work will now be undertaken by outside advisory committees which are convened by the universities. Other sources of information for the Department from now on will be overseas regulatory agencies and the pharmaceutical industry.

Current and former staff say they are uneasy about the closure, especially given claims of harassment of federal regulators under the year-old drug approval user fee scheme (Marketletter July 21), according to local reports. Art Beaubien, a pharmacologist who has recently retired from the bureau, warns that "since we no longer will have scientists independent of industry doing research for motives other than profit, we will no longer have an unbiased viewpoint when it comes to the marketing of drug products. You will only have the drug companies' viewpoint."