About the Drug and Health Product Register and Portal
On this page
What's new
The first release of the Drug and Health Product Register (DHPR) took place in winter 2015. The DHPR is evolving and will soon become the Drug and Health Product Portal (DHPP). Over the coming months, information currently available within the DHPR will move to the DHPP and will include the following new features:
- improved search
- improved accessibility
- daily updates to drug information
- improved links between health products and the regulatory information about those health products
Our goal is for the DHPP to be the main source of publicly available information about health product safety and use.
Overview
The DHPR gives you easy access to consumer information about:
- drugs marketed in Canada for human use
- natural health products
- medical device incidents
All information available through the DHPR has been government approved.
You can use the DHPR to search for information about drugs, including by:
- brand name
- active ingredient
- drug identification number (DIN).
Drug information available through the DHPR includes:
- what it does
- how to store it
- side effects, such as:
- how to report them
- what to do about them
- ingredients, such as:
- medicinal
- non-medicinal
- how to use it properly
- what dosage form it comes in
- warnings, precautions and interactions
Why you might be interested
You may be interested in the DHPR if you:
- want access to regulatory information about health products
- want to know how to use health products effectively
- want to know about the safety and effectiveness of the health products you use
The DHPR is designed for all Canadians, and may be especially useful to:
- consumers
- health care professionals
- researchers interested in Canada's health care system.
Our commitment
Health Canada is responsible for regulating health products and provides information on their safety and proper use. The DHPR has been designed to improve access to health product information by presenting it in a format that is:
- searchable
- user friendly
- open and transparent
How the register delivers on these commitments
The DHPR provides a central place to view the information reported during regulatory activities. It also delivers detailed and understandable information that explains health product safety.
The DHPR provides Canadians with access to bilingual consumer information on all drugs marketed for human use when available from the product sponsor. This includes information on:
- ingredients
- side effects
- what the drug is used for
It also provides summary reports, including the:
- Summary Safety Review (SSR)
- Summary Basis of Decision (SBD)
- Regulatory Decision Summary (RDS)
This information is given for:
- medical devices
- applicable drugs
- some natural health products (SSR only)
Due to the fact that some of the information made available on the DHPR and DHPP originated with an organization that is not subject to the Official Languages Act, the document may only appear in the language in which it was written. Translations of the document are the responsibility of the sponsor involved.