An Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act (natural health products)

Bill C-224 changes how natural health products, like vitamins, herbal remedies, and homeopathic products, are treated under the Food and Drugs Act. Currently these products can be classified as "therapeutic products," which subjects them to the same stricter monitoring, inspection, and enforcement rules that apply to conventional drugs and medical devices. This bill changes the legal definition so that natural health products are no longer considered "therapeutic products," except for nicotine replacement products, which will still be treated as before.

As a result of this change, the bill also removes some specific legal powers that regulators had gained over natural health products through earlier legislation (the 2023 budget implementation act), including provisions found in sections 21.321 and 21.8(2) of the Act. These sections had allowed for enhanced oversight measures for such products.

Finally, the bill includes a transitional rule stating that no one can be prosecuted, and ongoing prosecutions must stop, for certain offences involving natural health products if those offences occurred between when the 2023 budget law provision took effect and when this new bill becomes law. In short, the bill is aimed at rolling back stricter regulatory treatment of natural health products and returning them to being regulated separately and more lightly than pharmaceutical drugs and devices.

This bill amends the Food and Drugs Act to exclude natural health products from the definition of "therapeutic product," removes two related enforcement provisions, and bars proceedings for certain past offences involving these products.

• Definition change — natural health products are excluded from the Act's definition of "therapeutic product," except those containing nicotine or its salts used in nicotine replacement therapy, which remain covered.
• Repealed provisions — section 21.321 and subsection 21.8(2) of the Food and Drugs Act are repealed; the text of the bill does not describe what these provisions did, only that they are removed.
• Effect on regulatory regime — by removing natural health products from the "therapeutic product" definition, they become subject to a different set of rules (the existing Natural Health Products Regulations) rather than the monitoring regime that applies to drugs and devices under the Act.
• Retroactive limit on prosecutions — no proceedings may be started or continued under sections 31.2 or 31.4 of the Act for offences involving natural health products if the alleged offence occurred between the coming into force of section 500 of the *Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1* and the coming into force of this bill; this applies to that specific window without a stated end date.
• Scope left undefined — the bill does not itself set out what oversight, if any, applies to natural health products going forward; that is determined by the existing Natural Health Products Regulations, which are not amended or reproduced in this text.