NHP Consulting to Save You Time & Money on NPN Number Registration

Several key pieces are required to sell an NHP in Canada: A Natural Health Product Number or NPN, a compliant and bilingual label, your foreign or domestic manufacturing/packaging/labeling site to be annexed to a Canadian NHP Site License. Quality Smart Solutions and Quality Import Solutions offers turn-key solutions for all these activities. Reach out to our team to inquire about the range of services we can offer.

The first step of Natural Health Product licensing is to perform an in-depth formula review. The formula review will address any questions or concerns around the product’s ingredients. After that, a Product License Application form will need to be drafted, along with the necessary accompanying documents (e.g. cover letter, attestation forms, evidence and safety summary report, etc.). Finally, when the application package is prepared, it can be submitted to Health Canada for review and approval.

A Natural Health Product (NHP) License, otherwise known as a Product License, is needed in order to sell your NHP in Canada. Selling your product without this number may results in a stop sale, detainment, or forfeiture of your natural health products by Health Canada and/or the Canada Border Services Agency.

Once the application is submitted, the standard review timelines for Health Canada are as follows: Class I – 60 days, Class II – 90 to 120 days, Class III – 210 to 310 days. These timelines are non-binding meaning licensing may take longer than stated performance standard targets.

You will need an NPN and a compliant/bilingual label.

Your foreign (ie. outside Canada) manufacturing site must be annexed to a Canadian Health Canada site license holder with the activity of importing natural health products.  Depending on what kind of quality documentation your site already carries, you may qualify for a pre-cleared annexation stream. Otherwise, you will have to complete a full QAR form and submit additional records and SOPs to support the GMP activities conducted at your site.

Please reach out to our team if you have any further questions or if you would like any of your documentation, formulas or labels reviewed by our staff! We’re happy to help!

No. You must obtain a NPN license, have a compliant label and, if your dietary supplement is manufactured outside Canada, you must partner with a Health Canada site licensed importer. 

If your NHP is being exported to Canada without an NPN it is subject to border enforcement by the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) who could detain the non-compliant product, destroy on-site or ship back to the exporter at their expense. If the NHP is discovered to be sold in retail (online or in brick-and-mortar) Health Canada would issue a stop sale and recall of the product. 

Health Canada treats each NHP application separately. They do not reference previously licensed products in their evaluation (unless you have permission from the other product license holder and reference their NPN on your application).  As such, another company that has an NPN for the same product formula as yours does not expedite or have any influence on the licensing of your product.