Advancing the Pediatric Clinical Trial Agenda in Ottawa

The Health Canada Relations and Advocacy Sub-Platform of RareKids-CAN and the Maternal Infant Child and Youth Research Network (MICYRN), in partnership with the SickKids Child Health Policy Accelerator, brought researchers from across Canada to Ottawa on November 25 and 26 to advocate for streamlined pediatric clinical trial regulations.

Over these two days, this group met with the Minister of Health's policy team, the Assistant Deputy Minister at Health Canada, the Chief Regulatory Officer at Health Canada, and more than 250 Health Canada staff involved in medical research and regulation. Our message - pediatric clinical trials investigating off-label use of marketed Standard of Care therapies should have a regulatory exemption - was well received. We will continue to engage with the federal government to move this policy forward in the months to come, and as Health Canada continues its Clinical Trial Modernization project.

If you would like to receive more information about our policy proposal, please email gwendolyn.moncrieff-gould@sickkids.ca.