A recent headline in the National Post asked: "Drugs made in China: opportunity or threat?" The story noted that Canada's pharmaceutical industry is looking very hard at lower production costs in China—and that Health Canada seems to have few if any objections.

Really?

I can't help recalling that recent shipments of goods from China have included lethal melamine in pet foods, neurotoxic lead-based paint on children's cribs, and neurotoxic cadmium-coated trinkets for toddlers.

Some Chinese manufacturers, in fact, were recently executed for adding melamine to infant formula.

China's pharmaceutical industry is reported to be the world's fastest-growing, soon to surpass the U.S. as the world's largest producer of prescription drugs.

"China already has more than 2,500 drug regulatory departments with varying powers and controls—and a record of circumventing rules," writes Peter Worthington.

Perhaps the problem the news story should highlight is the rather loose way in which Health Canada and the Food and Drug Directorate control Canada's pharmaceutical industry. The majority of the testing to get drugs approved for sale is not done by Health Canada, but by the pharmaceutical manufacturers themselves. It has been suggested that some manufacturers have conducted scores of tests, seeking to isolate the two or three with the best results for submission to Health Canada.

With proposals to outsource the production of Canada's medicines to an industrial environment with a very uncertain regulatory environment, it's time for a complete review of how such products are produced, tested, and approved for distribution in Canada—regardless of where they are made.