Advertising Natural Health Products

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Since Health Canada announced their expedited licensing process for hand sanitizers to help combat COVID-19, they have provided additional notices to assist industry with the registration process. Updates have provided further clarification on correct forms to use for notifying Health Canada regarding importation, acceptable label statements, and correct application procedures. The most recent notice is a reminder for sellers of alcohol-based sanitizers in Canada to abide by the regulations set out in the Food & Drugs Act and Natural Health Product Regulations with respect to advertising.

Monographs created by Health Canada may be used by applicants to support product license applications for natural health products (NHP). Applicants using the monograph will receive a product license faster than those who submit evidence for review by Health Canada. Conditions of sale for these NHPs must be identical to conditions of sale stated in the monograph. Once product approval is received, manufacturers may promote their product using print and digital advertising, company website, Kijiji or Facebook, but ad content must not extend beyond the monograph.

Statements regarding product use or purpose (i.e. benefit or “claim”) must align (verbatim) with those of the monograph in order to maintain compliance with Canadian laws. Alcohol-based sanitizers may carry any of the claims listed below:

  • antiseptics skin cleanser
  • medicated skin cleanser
  • antibacterial skin cleanser
  • kills harmful bacteria/germs
  • effective in destroying (harmful) bacteria to provide antiseptic cleansing

The above statements are the only product uses approved by Health Canada for alcohol-based hand sanitizers using the Antiseptic Skin Cleansers monograph. While these products may be used in association with the efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in Canada, the products themselves may not be promoted to treat or prevent COVID-19, or offer protection and immunity from COVID-19. Health Canada will take the necessary compliance and enforcement actions against manufacturers engaging in non-compliant advertising for their products. Additionally, manufacturer/product names will be added to the “Health Products Advertising Incidents Related to COVID-19” page on the Health Canada site to assist the public in understanding which product uses have not been evaluated by Health Canada.