Healthy Skepticism Library item: 10911

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Joint agency collapses
Pharmacy Daily (Australia) - registration required 2007 Jul 17
http://www.pharmacydaily.com.au

Full text:

A LACK of support in New Zealand’s parliament is being blamed for a decision by authorities there to shelve the proposed joint Australian-NZ Therapeutic Products Agency.

The sensational disclosure follows years of work in developing the frameworks for how the joint regulatory body would operate and hopes of significant industry savings. NZ State Services minister Annette King said the Theraputics Products and Medicines Bill had been “postponed, but will remain on the Order Paper to be revisited when sufficient parliamentary support is available”.

“The Agreement between Australia and New Zealand also remains in place, and can be ratified in the future following the passage of legislation,”
she said.

The move is said to be related to concerns in the NZ community about increased prices for complementary medicines, which aren’t currently regulated there.

King said the NZ govt still strongly supports the vision of the joint agency but “despite all the painstaking work done by officials on both sides of the Tasman, this important initiative cannot be advanced at this time”.

She said the government doesn’t have the numbers in parliament to put in place a “sensible, acceptable compromise that would satisfy all parties.”

The Australian health dept hasn’t yet commented on the collapse of the proposals.