This dataset contains complete product information for all approved, marketed, canceled and dormant products for human, veterinary, disinfectant and radiopharmaceutical use in the Canadian Drug Product Database (DPD) as of September 1, 2017. Before drug products are authorized for sale in Canada, Health Canada reviews them to assess the safety, efficacy, and quality. Drug products include prescription and non-prescription pharmaceuticals, disinfectants and sanitizers with disinfectant claims.

📍 Overview

The Drug Product Database (DPD) is the official registry of all pharmaceutical products that are authorized for sale in Canada. Maintained by Health Canada, this dataset provides comprehensive information on drugs that are currently approved, previously approved (but discontinued or withdrawn), or under specific regulatory conditions.

This dataset is a crucial resource for researchers, healthcare professionals, regulators, and data scientists working in public health, pharmacovigilance, healthcare analytics, and regulatory intelligence.

💊 About the Dataset

The Drug Product Database (DPD) contains details about:

• Active and previously authorized human and veterinary drug products sold in Canada
• Product names, dosage forms, routes of administration, and strengths
• Regulatory status, Drug Identification Number (DIN), and approval information
• Companies responsible for manufacturing and marketing
• Therapeutic classifications and pharmaceutical standards

Each record represents a single drug product as listed in Health Canada’s public DPD.

📂 Dataset Contents

📊 Example Use Cases

Here are some ideas for how you can use this dataset:

• 🩺 Drug trend analysis: Track how the number of authorized drug products changes over time.
• 🧪 Therapeutic class exploration: Explore the most common therapeutic categories or emerging treatment areas.
• 🧬 Active ingredient analysis: Identify commonly used active ingredients and their distribution across products.
• 🏥 Regulatory lifecycle studies: Study product approvals, discontinuations, and regulatory trends.
• 🤖 ML projects: Build models to predict drug approval likelihood, classify therapeutic categories, or cluster similar drugs.

📈 Potential Visualizations

• Top 10 companies by number of authorized drugs
• Distribution of dosage forms and routes of administration
• Time-series visualization of drug approvals per year
• Network graphs linking active ingredients to therapeutic classes
• Sankey diagrams of status transitions (e.g., Approved → Marketed → Discontinued)

🧠 Why This Dataset Matters

Drug regulation and market authorization are key aspects of public health. This dataset enables:

• Transparency in regulatory processes
• Data-driven insights into Canada’s pharmaceutical landscape
• Academic research on drug safety, market dynamics, and healthcare policy
• Industry intelligence for pharmaceutical R&a...

This dataset contains complete active ingredient information for all approved, marketed, canceled and dormant products for human, veterinary, disinfectant and radiopharmaceutical use in the Canadian Drug Product Database (DPD) as of September 1, 2017. Before drug products are authorized for sale, Health Canada reviews them to assess their safety, efficacy, and quality. Drug products include prescription and non-prescription pharmaceuticals, disinfectants and sanitizers with disinfectant claims.

The Drug Product Database (DPD) system captures information on Canadian human, veterinary and disinfectant products approved for use by Health Canada. To facilitate the use of the drug product data, multiple Drug Product files are available. Users can access the complete data set through the “Drug Product” file. Subsets of the data can be accessed in the “Drug Product By …” files. The data in these files are filtered based on the current drug product status. For example, only drug product data for Approved products will be found in the “Drug Product By Approved Status” file.

Public Health Canada

Drug Products Database Dump

This is publicly accessible open data uploaded here for easy of use. Files can also directly be downloaded from here: https://health-products.canada.ca/api/drug/ Updated as of January 5 2025

The Drug Product Database (DPD) system captures information on Canadian human, veterinary and disinfectant products approved for use by Health Canada. To facilitate the use of the drug product data, multiple Drug Product files are available. Users can access the complete data set through the “Drug Product” file. Subsets of the data can be accessed in the “Drug Product By …” files. The data in these files are filtered based on the current drug product status. For example, only drug product data for Approved products will be found in the “Drug Product By Approved Status” file.

The Drug Product Database (DPD) system captures information on Canadian human, veterinary and disinfectant products approved for use by Health Canada. To facilitate the use of the drug product data, multiple Drug Product files are available. Users can access the complete data set through the “Drug Product” file. Subsets of the data can be accessed in the “Drug Product By …” files. The data in these files are filtered based on the current drug product status. For example, only drug product data for Approved products will be found in the “Drug Product By Approved Status” file.

Study design We conducted a cross-sectional study to quantify the number and describe the characteristics of prescription drugs on the Canadian market as of August 23, 2022 with a patient support program defined as services (including but not limited to financial assistance) offered to patients prescribed a specific drug and initiated and funded by the manufacturer. We then conducted a structured content analysis of web-based sources to understand the types and range of supports provided to patients through these programs. We chose to rely exclusively on publicly available data sources to both identify and describe manufacturer-sponsored patient support programs as these are sources currently available to patients when making program enrolment decisions and policymakers seeking to understand the extent and impact of this model of care. Sampling frame Because the European Medicines Association defines a patient support program as services for a specific drug offered by the company holding the marketing authorization, we first sought to identify all drug companies with currently marketed, prescription products in Canada. Between June 27, 2022 and August 23, 2022, two investigators independently extracted the names of all member companies listed on the websites of the three main trade associations for the Canadian pharmaceutical industry (Innovative Medicines Canada, representing the research-based pharmaceutical industry; BIOTECanada, representing the biotechnology industry; and the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, representing generic drug manufacturers). Because trade association membership is voluntary, we supplemented this list with non-member drug manufacturers identified in previous research. Using the Health Canada Drug Product Database,two investigators independently screened the list of companies and included those with marketed, prescription products and excluded companies that were not drug manufacturers (e.g., law firms) or without currently marketed prescription drugs (e.g., products under development). Discrepancies were resolved through discussion or adjudication by a third author. Sample and variables Using the Health Canada Drug Product Database, one investigator searched each identified drug manufacturer and extracted the product and active ingredient name(s) for all marketed, prescription drugs. We counted a single “drug” as all dosages, formulations, or routes of administration with the same active ingredients and manufacturer since industry patient support programs are brand-specific and do not typically differentiate among these factors. We selected variables that reflect known characteristics of drugs that may be associated with having a patient support program, and for which data were publicly available. One investigator also extracted Schedule D (biologic) status, route(s) of administration, and Level 1 Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) code from the Drug Product Database and Product Monograph and identified whether the drug had Orphan Drug Status using the searchable United States database. On the basis of type of Health Canada regulatory review (i.e. innovator or subsequent entry), clinical expertise, and knowledge about the manufacturer, two investigators independently identified the brand status of each drug as brand (i.e. “innovator” products first to market); branded generic (i.e. “subsequent entry” products which are bioequivalent or biosimilar to an existing product on the market, but given a proprietary name); or generic (i.e. “subsequent entry” products which are bioequivalent to an existing product on the market). We classified biosimilars as branded generics. We resolved discrepancies through discussion, and/or adjudication by a third author. Identifying patient support programs and their characteristics Our primary outcome was whether a sampled drug had an associated manufacturer-sponsored patient support program. We defined a patient support program as any combination of services or resources related to medication access, administration, adherence, education, storage, or disposal for patients prescribed a specific product and initiated, sponsored and/or operated by the company holding the product’s marketing authorization. We distinguished patient support programs from “patient assistance programs,” excluding programs that exclusively provided financial assistance (e.g., coupons, co-pay coverage, etc.); expanded or compassionate access programs; risk management programs outlined in the Product Monograph (initiated by the regulator rather than the manufacturer); and programs delivered solely for a clinical study. Two investigators independently performed structured searches on Google (“[company name] AND patient support program AND Canada” and “[drug brand name] AND patient support program AND Canada”) to identify industry sponsored patient support programs in Canada and resolving discrepancies through discussion. Using Zotero, a reference management...

Unfortunately, the text-based data extract is no longer accessible through the Natural and Non-prescription Health Products (NNHPD) website. We want to underline that the support for the CSV (text) extract formats has been dropped by our program area and the links to CSV files on the page will be deleted soon. However, the alternative formats XML and JSON are both available and are updated daily and will continue to be moving forward. .For the most recent LNHPD extract you can retrieve either XML or JSON extracts from our API. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. The Licensed Natural Health Products Database contains information about natural health products that have been issued a product licence by Health Canada. This data extract contains information on NHP Products. Products with a licence have been assessed by Health Canada and found to be safe, effective and of high quality under their recommended conditions of use. You can identify licensed natural health products by looking for the eight-digit Natural Product Number (NPN) or Homeopathic Medicine Number (DIN-HM) on the label.

The Canadian Clinical Drug Dataset is a drug terminology and coding system designed to allow the interchange of standardized drug and medical device information between diverse digital health systems. Some use cases include electronic prescribing, electronic medical records, medication reconciliation and analytics. It also provides for the classification and identification of defined groups of medications (called special groupings), such as narcotic and controlled drugs. It has the capacity to be used by knowledge-based vendors, clinicians, researchers, statistical users, government agencies, healthcare organisations and consumers. The data source for the CCDD is the Drug Product Database (DPD) which contains information on drugs approved by Health Canada. However, the data is modeled differently following the CCDD Editorial Guidelines which take into consideration international terminology standards. For example, DPD uses the dosage form, “tablet (delayed-release)”, whereas CCDD uses the equivalent term “gastro-resistant tablet.” The Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set does not replace the Health Canada Drug Product Database (DPD) but is published in addition to it. The scope of health products included in CCDD is limited to those classified as human in DPD (veterinary, radiopharmaceutical and disinfectant products are out of scope). Some exclusions apply within the human class but are subject to periodic review: For a full list of exclusions, please see the Scope section in the CCDD Editorial Guidelines. In addition, a limited number of medical devices that are commonly prescribed and dispensed at a community pharmacy are included. This data set was developed in collaboration with Canada Health Infoway and is also available in their Terminology Gateway at https://tgateway.infoway-inforoute.ca/ccdd.html (Free login required)

Before a drug is authorized for sale in Canada, it must be issued a DIN in accordance with the Food and Drug Regulations. Also in accordance with the Food and Drug Regulations, a manufacturer of a drug must annually, before October 1, notify Health Canada that the drug is still on the market and that all the information previously provided pertaining to the drug is correct. The Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB) commits to service delivery standard of 120 calendar days, from the receipt of annual notification, to update the Drug Product Database (DPD).

Before a drug is authorized for sale in Canada, it must be issued a DIN in accordance with the Food and Drug Regulations. Also in accordance with the Food and Drug Regulations, a manufacturer of a drug must annually, before October 1, notify Health Canada that the drug is still on the market and that all the information previously provided pertaining to the drug is correct. The Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB) commits to service delivery standard of 120 calendar days, from the receipt of annual notification, to update the Drug Product Database (DPD).

Health Canada's Clinical Trials Database is a listing of information about phase I, II and III clinical trials in patients. The database is managed by Health Canada and provides a source of information about Canadian clinical trials involving human pharmaceutical and biological drugs. Additional information on Health Canada’s CTD is available at: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-health-products/drug-products/health-canada-clinical-trials-database/frequently-asked-questions.html

Documents on the Summary Basis of Decision (SBD) explain why certain drugs and medical devices were authorized for sale in Canada. Regulatory Decision Summaries (RDS) explain decisions for certain health products seeking market authorization, including medical devices and prescription drugs. A Summary Safety Review (SSR) follows after a potential safety issue with a drug or health product has been identified.

Health Canada's Clinical Trials Database is a listing of information about phase I, II and III clinical trials in patients. The database is managed by Health Canada and provides a source of information about Canadian clinical trials involving human pharmaceutical and biological drugs. Additional information on Health Canada’s CTD is available at: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-health-products/drug-products/health-canada-clinical-trials-database/frequently-asked-questions.html

These documents give information that will help you understand regulated inspections processes. It gives you access to information about each type of drug and health product inspection done by Health Canada, in Canada and abroad.

The Licensed Natural Health Products Database contains information about natural health products that have been issued a product licence by Health Canada.

List of Health Canada information sheets covering topics related to drug products.

The Licensed Natural Health Products Database contains information about natural health products that have been issued a product licence by Health Canada. This data extract contains information on NHP Products.

Products with a licence have been assessed by Health Canada and found to be safe, effective and of high quality under their recommended conditions of use. You can identify licensed natural health products by looking for the eight-digit Natural Product Number (NPN) or Homeopathic Medicine Number (DIN-HM) on the label.

Unfortunately, the text-based data extract is no longer accessible through the Natural and Non-prescription Health Products (NNHPD) website. We want to underline that the support for the CSV (text) extract formats has been dropped by our program area and the links to CSV files on the page will be deleted soon. However, the alternative formats XML and JSON are both available and are updated daily and will continue to be moving forward. .For the most recent LNHPD extract you can retrieve either XML or JSON extracts from our API. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. The Licensed Natural Health Products Database contains information about natural health products that have been issued a product licence by Health Canada. This data extract contains information on NHP Products. Products with a licence have been assessed by Health Canada and found to be safe, effective and of high quality under their recommended conditions of use. You can identify licensed natural health products by looking for the eight-digit Natural Product Number (NPN) or Homeopathic Medicine Number (DIN-HM) on the label.