NZ
Health Trust Newsletter
No: 13 - 1st March
2005
We
need your help right
now!
It's time for an update about everything that has been happening in the fight
to defeat the proposed
Trans Tasman joint
agency to regulate
all therapeutic products
and an urgent call
for your support.
Hello to all our supporters,
colleagues & friends
once again and welcome
to new subscribers
This newsletter is to
update you on;
Urgent Support campaign
Political update
TGA gets even tougher
Similar battles being
fought around the world
URGENT SUPPORT
Have you filled in an “Urgent
Support” form yet?
As you may know the postcard
campaign has finished
for now but if you still
have stocks of them please
continue to distribute
them. Over 130,000 cards
were printed and sent
out by the NZHT and they
have done a great job.
NZHT's focus has shifted
now to our urgent support
campaign which asks people
to indicate in writing
that they agree with
the position the NZHT
has taken on this issue.
This lets us show the
politicians just how
much opposition there
really is to the government’s
joint agency proposal.
It will also show the
amount of support there
is for a new NZ regulator
based on the recommendations
of the first Health Select
committee report.
So far we have over
1000 supporters who have
filled in and returned
the urgent support form.
Thanks to you all. Our
goal is to get 10,000
initially and given recent
statistics showing over
2 million NZ'ers used
natural health products
in the last 12 months
and not forgetting some
10,000 practitioners,
plus all the manufacturers,
importers, suppliers & retailers
etc, that shouldn't be
hard! So please if you
haven't already – go
to the website and fill-in
the form now and encourage
as many others as you
can to do the same.
http://nzhealthtrust.co.nz/urgent_support.php
On the website you can
also print copies of
the form (for posting
or faxing back) or order
stocks of pre printed
urgent support forms
to distribute to friends,
clients, colleagues and
contacts. http://nzhealthtrust.co.nz/support_forms.html
Remember democracy is
a numbers game so the
more support we can demonstrate,
the more influence we
can have.
POLITICAL UPDATE
In our last newsletter
we noted that the National
party had not decided
what its position would
be on this issue and
had made statements
that effectively meant
they might vote either
way. While a number
of encouraging statements
have now been made,
there is still no certainty
over National's position.
Statements are made
along the lines that
they "will not
support the proposal
UNLESS they are satisfied
it will be good for
NZ businesses".
This may of course
come down to which
arguments they chose
to believe and which
businesses they decide
to listen to! So it
remains important that
we all work to let
National and the other
parties know that this
is a key issue leading
up to the election
and encourage them
to commit to voting
against the TGA proposal.
TGA GETS TOUGHER
In the wake of the Pan
debacle the TGA has
continued to get tougher
still on the blameless
natural products industry
(despite it being a
pharmaceutical that
was behind the Pan
problems). Recent reports
out of Australia from
businesses there include
comments such as compliance
costs having increased
by 800% for one firm,
another has had to
spend an extra $2 million
in compliance costs,
another still faces
a $1.86 million bill
to upgrade their computer
systems as now required.
Not
only that, the Australian
Government has now accepted
almost all of the approx
50 expert committee recommendations
aimed at increasing the
powers of the TGA even
more - so the situation
is set to get much worse.
For details of this report
go to http://www.tga.gov.au/cm/cmreponse.pdf
And further to this,
the TGA have announced
107 pages of amendments
to the TGA Act including
draconian criminal penalties.
More about this in a
future newsletter.
This highlights part
of the reason we are
determined that the NZ
industry will not be
sacrificed to the monster
that is the Australian
TGA.
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
Another of the reasons
we are fighting the
TGA proposal is because
it would see natural
health products changed
from a classification
as "foods" and
moved to being classed
alongside pharmaceuticals.
Natural health products
provide clear health & therapeutic
benefits and they should
be able to make proper
claims. They are their
own separate industry
with their own risk
profiles & issues.
We argue they should
be regulated accordingly
and not classed as
drugs.
This battle is being
waged in several other
countries around the
world as the pharmaceutical
industry recognises the
influence of natural
health on their prime
markets and seeks to
control this burgeoning
industry. Right now our
counterparts in Canada
have been successful
in having the Canadian
Parliament consider Bill
C-420 which would prevent
natural health products
being treated as drugs
for many of the same
reasons the NZHT is fighting
this proposal.
The time to stop this
is now - do your bit
by registering your support
of the NZHT and asking
friends, colleagues and
clients to do the same.
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