You must submit your complaint in writing (by mail or email) to Innovative Medicines Canada. We do not accept verbal, telephone or fax complaints. Address your complaints to:
Innovative Medicines Canada
Attention: Executive Director, Ethics & Compliance
c/o Director of Industry Practices
55 rue Metcalfe Street, Suite 1220, Ottawa, ON K1P 6L5
Complaints may be submitted to the following email address: complaint@imc-mnc.ca
Make it clear which Innovative Medicines Canada member company you are making a complaint against. Our Code of Ethics applies only to Innovative Medicines Canada members and does not apply to generic drug companies or innovative pharmaceutical companies that are not members.
When you make a complaint, you must identify yourself, as well as any company, organization, or association you are affiliated with. Provide your full return address and contact information. We will not consider anonymous complaints or complaints that do not have adequate contact information.
If you have not identified yourself as a complainant to the company you are making a complaint against, Innovative Medicines Canada will not identify you during the investigation and adjudication process. (Member companies making complaints are encouraged to identify themselves.)
However, if you or the member company you are making a complaint against appeals a decision by the Industry Practices Review Committee, we will disclose your identity and we will require you to participate in the arbitration process. If you choose to discontinue the complaint when the member company appeals, we will not disclose your identity.
You must set out in writing as much specific information as possible about your complaint. You may submit evidence in the form of documentation and/or photographs, but Innovative Medicines Canada may not return the materials you submit. Providing timely, clear, and accurate information will greatly assist in the processing of the complaint. International Pharmaceutical Research Centre (IPRC) will not consider complaints sent to us more than 120 days after you learned about the events (or reasonably ought to have learned about them).
If at all possible, you should set out what section(s) of the Code of Ethical Practices you believe has been violated. Correct references to the Code will facilitate the processing of a complaint.
Before your complaint is formally reviewed by the IPRC, the Director of Industry Practices will attempt to engage the disputing parties in an exchange of information. This normally involves the Director of Industry Practices seeking a written response to the complaint by the member company you are making a complaint against. If the member agrees, this response will be shared with you. If you wish to withdraw the complaint, the complaint process is terminated at this point. The Director of Industry Practices will send you and the member company a letter confirming that the file has been closed. Otherwise, the Director of Industry Practices will refer the complaint file to the IPRC for adjudication.
For Innovative Medicines Canada to process and adjudicate your complaint, we may have to send follow-up enquiries. If you fail to respond to our enquiries, we may discontinue the complaint process.
Do not direct complaints about member company advertising issues to Innovative Medicines Canada. Please direct them to the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board (PAAB) at:
Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board
375 Kingston Road
Pickering, ON
LIV IA3
You may submit your complaints in either English or in French.
Innovative Medicines Canada wants to make sure that all complaints are filed by the complainant in good faith. We reserve the right to reject complaints that we find frivolous, vexatious and abusive to Innovative Medicines Canada and/or its member companies, moot or otherwise made in bad faith.
Note: Innovative Medicines Canada reserves the right to reject any complaint, without further notice, that does not follow the above requirements.