The NZ Government has introduced the Therapeutic Products Bill which proposes to regulate natural health products with medicines and medical devices to ensure there is “acceptable safety, quality, and efficacy” of all therapeutic products. While the justification for the introduction of this Bill is the legislation does require a much-needed update (the Medicines Act 1981 and the Dietary Supplement Regulations 1985), the proposition to regulate all natural health products alongside synthetically derived medicines and medical devices is nonsensical.

All products will be regulated by a sole regulator appointed by the Director-General of Health NZ. This person will decide which products will be available in our stores through a process called “market authorisation”. With exclusive authority by one person for this wide breadth of products, how can we have faith that each category of the aforementioned products will have equal and purposeful outcomes in the authorisation process?

So, what is covered in this Bill? The Government has released an update (07-02-23) that there is “no list of ‘permitted or prohibited ingredients’ and that this is a confusion with the previous draft Bill and has been ‘misleading’ for the public”. However, they go on to state, “if the Bill is passed a list will be revealed”.  This is unacceptable to New Zealanders. This list should be known prior to the Bill being passed. This is why we must SayNO!