Therapeutic Products Bill Submission!

Myeloma New Zealand has made a submission on the Therapeutic Products Bill, as it has implications for Myeloma Patients. The Chair of the Health Committee has called for public submissions on the Therapeutic Products Bill. Therapeutic Products are medicines, medical devices, natural health products, and pharmaceutical ingredients. The bill seeks to provide for the regulation of therapeutic products in a way that is comprehensive and balances the risks and benefits of the products.

At present, the Medicines Act 1981 is the main legislation for enabling access to safe medicines and medical devices. Natural health products are regulated by the Dietary Supplements Regulations 1985 under the Food Act 2014. The bill would repeal most provisions of the Medicines Act, except those relating to pharmacy ownership, and revoke the regulations made under the Act. It would also revoke the Dietary Supplements Regulations. 

Changes that the bill proposes include:

• ​requiring therapeutic products to receive a market authorisation before they could be imported into, exported from, or supplied in New Zealand
• providing for the regulation of a range of controlled activities
• establishing a Therapeutics Products Regulator

The closing date for submissions is 11.59pm Sunday, 05 March 2023.Read more about the bill here: Therapeutic-products-bill