Health Canada has postponed most awaited decision regarding an approval of mifepristone a medical abortion drug. But the ruling was maintained till January and now it has reached at the end of the year. Advocates of the drug are alleging in a way that political intervention of the Harper government deserves to be condemned for such procrastination. This bill will be put into pending category. This kind of delay will suitably push forward Health Canada’s decision till the general election is scheduled for the period. Interestingly a Mifepristone has been sanctioned by the governments of 60 countries, along with the U.S.A. and large portion of Europe too. This drug is used and recommended on regular basis for so many years. Numerous papers have been submitted to prove its efficacy and safety. The president of National Abortion Federation stated that Health Canada has demanded for more information and data from the European drug manufacturer company who approached health Canada to get the permission to sell Mifepristone. This suggests that the federal regulator is not willing to issue permission for sell in the 2016.
The National Abortion Federation, counts for 80 percent of abortion manufacturers of Canada, and has played vital role in the drug company, Line pharma International, this company has applied to grant permission to sell a combination pack of mifepristone and misoprostol, but here Misoprostol required to complete a medical abortion that is sanctioned by Canada for of label uses too. This drug is approved by FDA and has specified few common side effects for example- abdominal pain, nausea, headache, vomiting, dizziness and fatigue. In spite of this, anti-abortion advocates are expressing gratitude that this drug has not yet got an approval in Canada, and have initiated a campaign to ban this drug from the market. Since the drug has been approved in the year of 2000 for public purpose in the U.S. there have been incidences of bacterial infections and sometime dangerous septic shock.
Joel Lexchin, is a professor at York University and has evaluated how much Health Canada availed time to give a nod to almost 41 new drugs in the recent years. The longest application consumed 644 days. Vicki Saporta, is a president of the National Abortion Federation, said that, ‘Health Canada has urged to provide more details about a product from the manufacturer, a request that will get postponed till next election term and thus a decision on whether to approve mifepristone or not will be upheld for a while. News that made rounds was few Canadian women visited our member clinics and conversed with the doctors by saying they have purchased a drug what they assumed as mifepristone from online’. In the opinion of Vicki Saporta, this kind of procrastination is simply compelling anguished women to search for another substitute in order to get an access to the drug. Health Canada has not supplied more details about their decision regarding approval to the RU486. It seems to be quite difficult to predict the future of this drug in this country.