I'm wondering if there is an agency approval process? any relevant
info on this matter would be great. Also, what is the difference
between Medicare & Medicade?

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration oversees
federal approval of new drugs. You can find their website here:
http://www.fda.gov/

This page links to documents (under the heading "Applications for New
Drug Products") that detail the drug approval process.
http://www.fda.gov/cder/regulatory/default.htm

For approval of medical devices (i.e. pacemakers):
http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/devadvice/3122.html

For approval of biologic products (i.e. vaccines):
http://www.fda.gov/cber/ind/ind.htm


Health Canada is the regulatory agency that oversees drug approval in
Canada. You may find the forms to apply for approval here:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpfb-dgpsa/tpd-dpt/index_drugs_e.html


Information on licensing medical products in Britain may be found
here:
http://www.mhra.gov.uk/ ( Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory
Agency )
http://www.mca.gov.uk/ourwork/licensingmeds/licensingmeds.htm (
Detailed information on medicine licensing )


For the difference between "medicare" and "medicade" -
"Medicare" refers to the American health care system that provides aid
to those who cannot afford the cost of medical care.
As for "medicade" - I searched a battery of online dictionaries but
they all returned no results. The closest word I can think of is
"medicate", which means "to treat with medicine".

Doing a quick search on Google reveals 2,570 documents (very few) that
contain the word "medicade". It seems that people use "medicade" in
the place of "medicare"; however, considering that dictionaries of the
English language do not recognize "medicade" as a word, I would
suggest that "medicare" should be used instead.


Hope this helps!


Search strategy

United Kingdom ministry of health
Dictionary.com
Sherlock's built-in Library feature (Mac OS X)

Medicaid:  http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5974

Here's some info on the difference between Medicare and Medicaid:

http://www.house.gov/sherrodbrown/Meddifference.html

http://www.carepathways.com/nhg-popdiff.cfm

http://www.eldercareteam.com/what%20is%20the%20difference%20between%20medicare%20&%20medicaid.htm