Note from the Commissioner

The first quarter of 2018 has shown a record number of first quarter submissions to the PAAB, reflecting a healthy number of NOCs granted by Health Canada in 2017. New products continue to come to market. This has kept the staff busy. I am pleased to say the turnaround statistics have been very positive in that the time to review first submissions and revised submissions continues to be low. We have a great staff at the PAAB.

The Annual General Meeting is coming up in April and we are looking forward to the board reviewing two new code issues: the definition of advertising in the PAAB code and the use of Real World Experience data to support advertising claims. I note that the board has completed its governance review and we look forward to effective and efficient direction from the board. We had our annual bilateral meeting with Health Canada on April 4, 2018, and the major discussion topics raised were: the new legislation related to Natural Health Products, the new Cannabis legislation, and the new legislation related to vaping products. We had a chance to update Health Canada officials on PAAB stats and current activities.

We are near to receiving the results of our annual client survey which consists of feedback from about 120 client personnel. We learn from this feedback and we have demonstrated that by making change to the Code based on client feedback.

As 2018 continues on, we look forward to serving our clients to help them achieve their ethical marketing efforts.

Sincerely,

Ray Chepesiuk

PAAB Commissioner