Guidance on management of drug submissions and applications: Overview

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Published: 2025-10-01

Note: Management of applications for biocides and disinfectants

All applications submitted under the Biocides Regulations on or after May 31 2025 must adhere to the Guidance on the Management of Biocide Applications.

During the 4-year transition period (until May 31, 2029), post-authorization changes for disinfectants authorized under the Food and Drug Regulations (FDR) that have not yet transitioned to the Biocides Regulations must be submitted in accordance with this guidance document (Management of drug submissions and applications).

If you have any questions, contact the Natural and Non-prescription Health Products Directorate at nnhpd-dpsnso@hc-sc.gc.ca.

Effective date: October 1, 2025
Replaces: Guidance Document: Management of Drug Submissions and Applications (August 2, 2022)

Document change log
Date Change Nature of and reason for change

October 1, 2025

Added public health emergency drugs

Regulatory amendments

Updated contact information (physical and email addresses)

Administrative

Removed cost recovery hold

Administrative

August 2, 2022

Removed the submission certification requirement for:

  • response to SDN
  • response to NOD
  • response to NON

Policy change

Defined the duration of a “response to clarification request”

Administrative

Updated email addresses, removed physical addresses and added Pharmaceutical Drugs Directorate contact information (formerly Therapeutic Products Directorate)

Administrative

Increase in performance standard for a post-authorization Division 1 change (PDC-prescription) for prescription pharmaceuticals and those administered or obtained through a health professional in the Pharmaceutical Drugs Directorate

  • includes a screening and review component

Separated post-authorization Division 1 change (PDCs) into:

  • PDC-prescription
  • PDC-non-prescription
  • PDC-disinfectant

Policy change

July 7, 2021

Included joint reviews with other regulatory authorities in pause-the-clock mechanism

Policy change

November 26, 2020

Made changes to reflect the new names of the bureaus in the Marketed Health Products Directorate (MHPD)

Administrative

Made changes to reflect the new Medical Devices Directorate (MDD)

Administrative

Corrected the email address for questions about the classification of products at the device-drug interface to drug.device.classification-drogue.instrument@hc-sc.gc.ca

Administrative

November 8, 2019

Deleted:

  • notifiable changes safety (90 days) and safety (120 days)

New fee categories for:

  • labelling only (generic) and safety updates to labelling (each with a 120-day performance standard)
  • labelling only (disinfectants) with a 90-day performance standard

Eliminated fee categories for:

  • published data and Rx to OTC switch

Revised performance standard for:

  • labelling only for Division 1 (180 to 120 days) and for Division 8 (60 to 120 days)
  • DINA, DINF and DIND labelling standard (45 to 60 days)

Added:

  • screening 1, 2 and review 2 timelines for existing and new fee categories where none previously existed
  • information on the pause-the-clock mechanism

New fees along with a revised fee policy on April 1, 2020, will require significant changes to the guidance document

July 25, 2019

Reorganized and reformatted information to reflect current procedures (with no change to existing practices)

Administrative

Added:

  • a section on the classification of a therapeutic product
  • an appendix indicating the individual responsible for signing decision documents
  • an appendix listing relevant guidance and policy documents

New information to help sponsors prepare and file drug submissions and applications

Deleted:

  • update notices
  • final data
  • safety information
  • advance notice letters
  • issuance of acknowledgment letters upon receipt of information by OSIP

Sections deleted from the previous version because no longer used or applicable

Other changes:

  • Amended the existing 15-day standard timeline for response to a clarification request during scientific review based on the type and performance standards of the submission or application
  • Reorganized the target performance standards table (Appendix 3) to delete replication of classes or types of submissions and applications filed

Administrative

December 19, 2013 (posted December 19, 2013)

Replaced references to Schedule F with references to the Prescription Drug List

Changes to reflect an amendment to the Food and Drug Regulations that replaced Schedule F with the Prescription Drug List

On this page

Purpose

This guidance document gives direction and guidance when managing information submitted in accordance with the Food and Drugs Act and its regulations. This guidance is for sponsors and Health Canada staff from the following directorates and divisions:

Scope and application

This guidance document applies to the following drug submission and application types:

This guidance document also applies to the following:

Note: This guidance document does not apply to blood establishment submissions and submissions for annual updates of influenza vaccines. For information on managing these submission types, consult:

Post-market pharmacovigilance monitoring documents

The following documents are not within the scope of this guidance but are part of post-market pharmacovigilance monitoring:

Send:

Contact us

Policy objectives

The objective of this guidance document is to ensure that submission and application information as well as procedures related to a drug review are applied consistently. It gives specific direction and guidance on:

Background

The first major revision to this guidance document was in 1993. It was then updated as follows:

Accessing your application

Drug Submission Tracking System - industry access

You may access information on your own submissions or applications using the Drug Submission Tracking System - Industry Access (DSTS-IA). You will be assigned a user name and password.

Information available through this system includes:

To obtain a DSTS-IA account or information about industry access, you should email OSIP at client.information@hc-sc.gc.ca .

Status requests

To check the status of your submission or application, you should first access the DSTS-IA. If you have further questions about the status, you may contact the appropriate office or person:

Contact us

For CTAs and CTA-As, status updates will not be provided given the short performance standards for review.

Note about guidance documents in general

Guidance documents are meant to provide assistance to industry and health care professionals on how to comply with governing statutes and regulations. They also provide guidance to Health Canada staff on how mandates and objectives should be met fairly, consistently and effectively.

Guidance documents are administrative, not legal, instruments. This means that flexibility can be applied. However, to be acceptable, alternate approaches to the principles and practices described in this document must be supported by adequate justification. They should be discussed in advance with the relevant program area to avoid the possible finding that applicable statutory or regulatory requirements have not been met.

As always, Health Canada reserves the right to request information or material, or define conditions not specifically described in this document, to help us adequately assess the safety, efficacy or quality of a therapeutic product. We are committed to ensuring that such requests are justifiable and that decisions are clearly documented.

This document should be read along with the relevant sections of the regulations and other applicable guidance documents.

Sponsors should refer to the most up-to-date versions of the guidance documents. The guidance documents are a starting point only to help sponsors.

Page details

2025-10-01