Fee Increases for Veterinary Medications

On April 1, 2019, Health Canada created new regulatory service fees to license and maintain veterinary medications for sale in Canada.

  • These new fees include increases from 39% – 500% by 2027, and will affect the availability of the medicines that animals need to stay healthy.
  • CAHI analysis predicts a loss of, or significant price increases for, 80 to 90% of registered animal medicines.

This is a huge step backward toward increased use of more crude, compounded medications, more use of off label drugs, and poorer health care for animals as both companies and animal owners struggle to manage cost.

How you can get involved 

The impact of higher service fees

  • Large financial increases for suppliers of animal medicines to bring in and maintain new licensed products to the Canadian market
  • Medicines that are currently available would be withdrawn from the market because of cost or prices will be passed on to end users
  • Less access to inovative animal health products and fewer claims for minor uses or minor species

What it means for you and your pet

  • Less access to affordable veterinary medicines for your pet
  • More veterinary procedures that could have been prevented or treated
  • Poorer health care for your pet

What it means for farmers and ranchers

  • A competitive disadvantage in global markets and to imported products
  • Access to veterinary products will be decreased even further
  • Fewer registered claims for all species, especially for minor species 
  • Increased culling to manage animal health challenges and maintain animal welfare

What it means for veterinarians and clinics

  • Losing these medications would limit the ability to practice using modern medicine
  • Small to medium sized animal health companies could go out of business resulting in fewer treatment options and less innovation
  • Without access to necessary drugs the alternatives would be:
    • Using less effective (and sometimes counterfeit) products to reduce cost
    • Not treating an animal, which compromises animal welfare
    • Euthanasia  

Canadian Animal Health Industry Facts

  • The majority of our companies meet at least one federal criterion for small to medium sized enterprises. Nine (9) have sales of less then $5 million per year and only one (1) has more than 100 employees.
  • The human health market in Canada is 35x the size of its veterinary counterpart. The budget for some of our members' entire veterinary portfolio is smaller than that allocated to one human drug within the same company.
  • Service fees apply for each species registered. The same veterinary medicine is often used to keep multiple species healthy. This differs greatly from the human health sector which only deals with one species.
  • The Canadian animal health market is only 2.5% of the global market. This mean for our global companies Health Canada's new regulatory service fees will mean fewer veterinary drugs will be brought to Canada because it just does not make sense financially. Canadian animal owners will have fewer options to maintain their animals' health.