Temporary new conditions have been put into place for companies creating medications, after five hospitals in New Brunswick and Ontario administered watered down chemotherapy drugs to more than 1200 patients.
Heath Canada is saying that companies can keep making the drugs can if it's done within a hospital and meets provincial requirements, outside the hospital under the eye of provincially licensed pharmacist or in a way that's in keeping with licensing and manufacturing requirements of the Food and Drugs Act. Dr. Supriya Sharma, senior medical adviser with Health Canada, says the conditions mean the companies can keep providing service until a long-term plan is figured out.
Marchese Hospital Solutions gave the drugs to the hospitals, but they say the problem wasn't with their drugs, it was with how they were administered. Sharma admitting that the new conditions might not have prevented the underdosing, as Marchese was believed to have been working under appropriate supervision.