How to Read a Canadian DIN Record
Every drug authorized for sale in Canada has an eight-digit Drug Identification Number. This guide explains what each field in a DIN record means, what the Health Canada status values actually tell you, and how to use Nexara's DIN and molecule pages.
What a DIN is
A Drug Identification Number (DIN) is the eight-digit number Health Canada assigns when it authorizes a drug product for sale in Canada. One DIN identifies one specific product: brand, manufacturer, active ingredient(s), strength, dosage form and route. A tablet and an oral solution of the same molecule from the same company carry different DINs.
The fields that matter for sourcing
Status. This is the field most buyers misread. Health Canada's Drug Product Database uses these values:
- Marketed — the product is authorized and the company has notified Health Canada it is being sold in Canada.
- Approved — authorized, but the company has not yet notified Health Canada that it is on the market. Approved products may not be obtainable.
- Dormant — the company has told Health Canada it has not sold the product for 12 consecutive months. Dormant products are often the ones that later turn up as shortages.
- Cancelled Post Market — the authorization was cancelled after the product had been sold. The product may still exist in the supply chain until stock expires, but it can no longer be replenished domestically.
- Cancelled Pre Market — cancelled before it was ever marketed.
Company. The market authorization holder. This changes more often than people expect — through acquisitions, divestitures and licensing — and a company change usually means a change in who to order from.
Active ingredient, strength, dosage form, route. The fields you match against a foreign product when looking for an equivalent during a shortage.
Schedule. Prescription, OTC, ethical, or narcotic/controlled classifications, which determine who can buy and how it must be handled.
Using Nexara's DIN and molecule pages
Nexara maintains a copy of the Drug Product Database that is refreshed weekly and compared against the previous snapshot. Every DIN page shows the current Health Canada record, the molecule it belongs to, sibling DINs (other products of the same molecule), whether the product is on the Canadian shortage list, and where the molecule appears in the international regulatory registers Nexara tracks. Every molecule page groups all Canadian DINs for that active ingredient. Neither page shows Nexara's pricing — request a quote for that.
Search by DIN, brand or molecule at nexarahealth.ca/ca.
Source: Health Canada Drug Product Database, as compared weekly by Nexara Health. Last reviewed September 2026.