E-DRUG: Editing/checking package inserts (4)
--------------------------------------------
What Sana said about official product monographs in Canada is true but there
are some additional pieces of information. First, these monographs while
approved by Health Canada remain the property of the pharmaceutical
companies and as such the companies can and do refuse to release them to
consumers who may want to read them. If consumers want to get a copy from
the government then they need to file an Access to Information request.
Second, and as a consequence of the first, product monographs or summaries
of them are not distributed to patients when they pick up prescriptions.
Instead, pharmacies purchase "information sheets" about drugs from
commercial companies and give these out. Sana has previously done a survey
about the contents of the information sheets and shown considerable
variability in the quality of the information in them.
Joel Lexchin
--
Joel Lexchin MD
121 Walmer Rd.
Toronto Ontario
Canada M5R2 2X8
Tel: 416-964-7186
Fax: 416-923-9515
e mail: joel.lexchin@utoronto.ca
--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: e-drug-help@healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.essentialdrugs.org/edrug