Several drug treatments for COVID-19 caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are approved for use in Canada. This systematic review evaluated the efficacy and safety of remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized adult and adolescent patients from settings within the health care systems in Canada or from countries with economies similar to Canada. We also characterized which hospitalized patients are most likely to benefit from treatment with remdesivir.

Several drug treatments for COVID-19 caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are approved for use in Canada. This systematic review evaluated the efficacy, effectiveness, and safety of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir in adults with SARS-CoV-2 infection who are considered high risk but are not hospitalized. We also characterized which patients are most likely to benefit from treatment with nirmatrelvir-ritonavir.

The objective of this query is to determine whether there are potential safety signals among adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus newly treated with Ozempic relative to similar patients newly treated with sitagliptin. This query attempts to replicate the US FDA Sentinel’s tree-based scan statistic (TreeScan), based on potential safety signal identification analysis, using the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES) adaptation of the Sentinel Common Data Model to identify potential postmarket safety signals for Ozempic in Canada.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) poses a serious public health issue in Canada. Buprenorphine formulations are important OUD treatment options but their comparative clinical effectiveness, safety, and cost-effectiveness are unclear. Previous reviews noted limited differences in clinical outcomes between different buprenorphine formulations but emphasized methodological issues and insufficient Canadian evidence. This report aims to analyze recent comparative evidence on buprenorphine formulations and assess their use in public drug plans across Canada.

Health Canada conducted various risk assessments of systemic fluoroquinolones, which enabled them to take regulatory measures in 2017, including issuing a Dear Health Care Professional Letter, updating their labels, and amending their indications to reflect their risk-benefit profile.

The main objective of the query is to assess the impact of the risk-minimization measures applied in 2017 by comparing the current trends of fluoroquinolone use to those from a previous drug utilization study conducted by the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES).

In response to the current crisis in emergency care in Canada, Canada's Drug Agency is working on a series of reports to help identify factors contributing to emergency department (ED) overcrowding, identify and describe interventions that can effectively alleviate ED overcrowding, understand the impact of ED overcrowding on quality of care, patient safety, staff and health professional learners’ well-being, and assess how ED overcrowding has changed over the years.

This review evaluated the efficacy and safety of immune checkpoint inhibitors as monotherapy in patients with previously treated advanced or metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harbouring EGFR, ALK, ROS1, or RET mutations. Thirteen systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials were assessed, revealing critical methodological flaws. All reviews focused on survival outcomes for patients with NSCLC  with EGFR mutations, relying on the same set of 4 clinical trials, and largely overlooked other outcomes or patient groups.