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Saturday, December 09, 2006

Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill being rammed through Parliament

"I am sad to have to inform you that on the 5th December 2006, at 9 a.m., Annette King tabled the ‘Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill’ in Parliament. The 494-page bill will have its first reading on Tuesday 12th December, at about 3.30 p.m.

This bill will undermine our sovereignty and our democracy, and restrict our access to natural supplements by regulating them as pharmaceuticals through a heavy handed Australian-based Australia New Zealand Therapeutic Products Agency (ANZTPA).

Despite overwhelming opposition, the government is bulldozing ahead with its plans to set up a Trans Tasman regulator.

New Zealand First, having promised publicly that it would never support a Trans Tasman agency that included dietary supplements, has reneged on its promise, and will now support the legislation, along with the government and United Future, through to Select Committee.

The proposed agency is designed to suit large multinational corporations, but will wipe our small New Zealand dietary supplements manufacturers. It will regulate dietary supplements as if they were drugs; impose an inappropriate, pharmaceutical model for low risk healthcare products, and result in increasing pharmaceutical control of natural health products.

If it goes ahead, small natural health businesses will go to the wall as a result of excessive compliance costs.

There will be reduced consumer choice as many ingredients will not be available in the future Some traditional remedies that have been safely used for centuries, such as Chinese herbs and Ayuvedic medicine, will become illegal in a few years time." Sue Kedgely, Green Party MP

Gary Moller comments:

This is a deliberate action by the pharmaceutical industry to knobble one of the leading threats to their domination of the health system and its billions of dollars which mostly go into the coffers of big business. They are getting away with it.
If you have not realised this yet: Governments serves big business first and the little people who elected them a far off second.

The current medical model only works well with emergency medicine. People are realising this and have been voting with their feet and their wallets by seeking out natural therapies via nutrition and lifestyle measures that empower, rather than disempower and create dependency.

Death by medicine now kills many more New Zealanders than road smashes. This is a huge scandal that still receives little media attention. Most of these deaths are preventable - by prescribing good nutrition, exercise and lifestyle interventions instead of grossly expensive poisons that eventually kill or maim the recipient.

New Zealanders will pay a lot more for their vitamin C and flax seed oil. Many products will no longer be available, or only via a costly prescription. Those who most need them; pensioners, the ill and the injured will no longer be able to afford the cost (Most already struggle with current costs!).

Fish oil or rat poison? At present you have a choice. Lets keep it that way. Write or visit your MP and express your outrage - NOW!


Anonymous said...

"Dear Member of Parliament"

If you held a referendum on the ANZTPA bill, what do you think the outcome would be?

You may not give a toss about this legislation, but it's a no win for you, most people either don't care, or they oppose it - strongly - more strongly than you think!

Your support to the Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill, is one of the reasons I will vote for the Green party at the next elections.

Surely in a democracy it makes more sense to please more people than you piss off?

Des said...

It is high time that people peddling snake oil were made to justify their claims. Most independent testing shows that dietary supplements are a waste of money.
Complementary medicines need to undergo the same testing as mainstream medicines.

Gary Moller said...

Yes, many of these products do not have robust scientific evidence to support their claimed effects and I take pleasure occasionally rubbishing some of these.

Some items, like Phiten, are outright quackery. ANZTPA will do nothing to stop these products flooding into the country - those who can afford to pay will still get in.

The ANZTPA has no interest whatsoever in effectiveness. It is concerned with "safety" (Yeah right!). There has been only one documented death from a health supplement in NZ in the last 10 yrs. That was a child who tragically choked on a vitamin pill.

If there were as many deaths from nutritional supplements as from pharmaceuticals (at least 3,000/yr) then there would be a case. There isn't, so why regulate?

Gary Moller said...

Des, would you like to give an example of a "snake oil" and I will do my best to comment on it?
That would be an interesting exercise.