Medicines
A comprehensive research has revealed that there is no evidence to prove the effectiveness of homeopathic medicines or cure of different ailments. In Photo: Global 2000 has come out with its list of top 2000 companies of which many pharmaceuticals are part of. Reuters

New Zealand's medicine sector will have its own regulator as the plan for a joint regulator with Australia has been dropped. This was stated by Health Minister Jonathan Coleman, who said the government will anoint its own regulator instead of pursuing the plan for a joint regulator with Australia.

"Both the governments explored for a joint regulator. But it was realised that national interests are best served by having separate therapeutic regimes," noted Coleman. Accordingly, the Ministry of Health in New Zealand will work on a comprehensive regulatory scheme for the therapeutic medicines. Coleman said modernising regulations in medicines is the need of the hour, reported scoop.nz.

Advantage

The minister said it would be ideal to have medicines, devices, cells and tissue therapies brought under a single regulatory framework to make it cost-effective. "Many countries want assurances about the health and safety of therapeutic products. We are also committed to maintaining own standards in line with international best practices," the minister added. Both Australia and New Zealand had been making joint efforts to establish the Australia New Zealand Therapeutic Products Agency (ANZTPA) after making a comprehensive review of the costs and benefits in both countries.

Despite dropping the joint plan, both New Zealand and Australia will cooperate in areas where mutual benefits to consumers, businesses and regulators exist. This will include areas of information sharing, setting standards and extending manufacturing audits. Australian Health Minister Peter Dutton and New Zealand Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said this in a joint statement, reported NZ Herald. The ministers said this would increase the potential for regulatory alignment and reduce compliance costs.

Industry Concern

Meanwhile, the New Zealand Self-Medication Industry Association said it felt disappointed at the government's decision to drop ANZTPA. The SMI executive director, Tim Roper, said a single regulatory body was the aspiration of the organisation for a number of years. According to the Web site, Regulatory focus, both New Zealand and Australia had made many milestones in their joint regulation efforts ever since 2011.

In September 2012, a call to harmonise over-the-counter drug regulations came up and the harmonisation was completed by 2013 March. In November 2012, a dedicated Web site was launched, and in 2013, harmonisation effort was unveiled on 14 separate activities. A parallel drug and device monitoring system was initiated in 2013. Notably, in June 2013, a joint adverse event notifications system got initiated. The regulators were hoping to get ANZTPA in place by 2017 before this new decision came up for scrapping it.