Newsletter no 44
Hello once again to our supporters. We hope you have had a enjoyable festive season and wish you all a prosperous 2008.
In this newsletter;
1. Brief notes from the Regulatory Consultation meeting.
2. Medsafe’s proposal to take control of Dietary Supplements from NZFSA.
3. Blocking of newsletters by Xtra/Yahoo now resolved.
4. Joint Industry Position Statement
1. Brief notes from the Regulatory Consultation meeting as requested by many of you that were unable to attend.
A Regulatory Consultation meeting hosted by the NZ Health Trust at the premises of Nature’s Sunshine in Albany, Auckland on Monday 17th December was very well attended by a broad cross section of the NZ Natural and Traditional Health Products industry.
There were over 60 industry representatives who came to hear NZ Health Trust lawyer Amy Adams talk about the history behind the narrowly averted ANZTPA Bill, and risk analyst Ron Law who introduced a proposed model that is in the process of being formulated as an alternative.
The meeting was opened by Maori Representative Maanu Paul, who spoke highly of the process that was taking place, hailing it as the first example of a truly co-operative joint venture in creating new legislation between Maori, Consumers, and Industry.
Amy Adams spoke of the several years that had been spent talking to MPs on a one on one basis, showing them the inherent flaws of an offshore agency that would stand outside both the Australian and NZ parliaments and have little accountability towards either, yet be able to make laws that the police in both countries would be obliged to enforce.
She pointed out that, from a legal perspective, governments must have good cause to pass restrictive laws, and in the case of Natural and Traditional Health Products, the justification to do so simply does not exist.
Risk Analyst Ron Law gave an in depth presentation of the latest version of the proposed alternative model, stressing that nothing at this time had yet been ‘set in concrete’. He advised all industry participants that their input was vital to ensure that the model being created would serve NZ people and industry far into the future and create a long overdue safe haven and identity for the sector, and ensure sensible health out comes. The starting point was meeting and expanding the principles of the first Health Select Committee report of Dec 03 and its numerous submitters and since then hundreds of hours of input from a very wide range of industry participants. He mentioned the aim is to provide a truly appropriate level playing field for all participants of the industry and not just a few with vested interests and the need to ensure it can’t get hijacked by regulators with inappropriate points of view, in a cost effective way to ensure the widest possible access to both products and information for the consumer, as well as assurance of quality and safety.
All who attended were invited to provide their contact details so that they could receive a copy of the proposed model in word form. This would enable them to add their proposed changes, additions, comments etc to the document to enable its continued evolution.
Many expressed concern about the Medsafe’s recently announced intention to amend (by cabinet and not Parliament) the 1985 Dietary Supplements Regulations to effectively give themselves control of the products that don’t meet the food category and enforce the 1985 Dietary Supplements regulations as from January 20. Please see below for the documents and how you can help.
The meeting concluded with a vigorous question and answer session, and a show of hands indicating near if not unanimous support for the underlying principals of the proposed model. Another show of hands indicated that about 80% of those present did not consider the pharmaceutical regulator (Medsafe) an appropriate body to regulate the Natural and Traditional Health industry.
The result of the meeting was very encouraging.
2. Medsafe’s proposal to take over control of Dietary Supplements from Food Safety (NZFSA)
This move could potentially be disastrous for business in the new year and as Amy mentioned at the meeting, we believe it is important to get a top level legal opinion on their ability to do so. We are commissioning the work but we are now looking to industry to help fund this.The estimated cost for this opinion is $10,000 +GST and it must be done without delay. NZ Health Trust has spent a significant amount towards repelling the joint Australian regulations to date and must now focus our resources on developing the NZ alternative model. $4,000 has been promised so far. If you think this is a worth while thing to do, you could help by contributing to the remaining $6,000 needed. Please email me at dave@nzht.co.nz
To understand the proposed changes read Medsafe’s/NZFSA industry notification
http://www.nzhealthtrust.co.nz/pdf/nzfsa_ds_regs_notification.pdf
To read the consultation Document.
http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/consultation/dietary-supplements/index.htm
3. Blocking of newsletters by Xtra/Yahoo now resolved.
If you signed up to receive our newsletter using an Xtra or Yahoo email address you will not have been receiving it over the last year or so because the NZHT website URL had been blocked by Xtra and then Yahoo. After a lot of work, cost and frustration we have got to the bottom of and put right(at least for now) the very controversial “blocking policy” practice used by these two organisations.
Because of this you will not have had the following message sent to you;
Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007
With the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 having now come into force, you must provide your consent to receive promotional emails.
When you registered either for our newsletter service or as a member, we took your registration as an indication that you would like to receive emails from us about our activities. Accordingly, we assume that we have your consent to continue to send these promotional emails to you.
If you do not wish to receive promotional emails from us, please click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this newsletter. If you still wish to receive our emails, you do not have to do anything.
Once again thank you for your interest and we look forward to working together to secure the future of Natural and Traditional health products in NZ.
4. Joint Industry Position Statement
Its encouraging to see that so far over 320 Industry Business/Organisations have endorsed the Position Statenment.
Its Important and helpful that your business/organisation submits your Joint Industry Position Statement form, we encourage you to do so by clicking here - http://www.nzhealthtrust.co.nz/position_statement.php
Kind Regards
Dave Sloan |
