Health Canada has suspended its March 1, 2011 deadline to begin enforcing the NHP Compliance and Enforcement Policy, which requires all natural health products to have an NPN number, or suitable approval, in order to remain on the market. This means Health Canada won't crack down on unlicensed natural health products for sale in Canada—yet.

"This is not necessarily a reprieve," says Lorna Hancock, executive director of Health Action Network Society. The move corresponds with the appointing of a new director of the Natural Health Products Directorate, Scott Sawler.

Nancy Richards, acting director general of the Natural Health Products Directorate, and Diana Dowthwaite, director general of the Health Products and Food Branch Inspectorate, on December 28, 2010, wrote in an email entitled "Update - NHP Standards of Evidence and New Compliance and Enforcement Policy":

"In September 2010, the Natural Health Products Directorate (NHPD) published its final response to the Natural Health Products Program Advisory Committee's (NHP-PAC) report on Standards of Evidence (SoE) for Non-Traditional Natural Health Products on the Health Canada website.

"The report contains 33 recommendations related to SoE. NHPD is presently considering the best manner in which to undertake revisions to the guidance document for the purposes of providing clarification and elaboration of the SoE. Additionally, the NHPD plans to hold further discussions with the NHP-PAC at its upcoming meeting scheduled for mid-January in Ottawa.

"Until the outcome of these discussions are known, Health Canada is extending the compliance promotion transition period which was slated to end on March 1, 2011, and will postpone the implementation of its new NHP Compliance and Enforcement Policy until further notice."

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