Advocate wants more changes to Therapeutic Products Bill to stop medication access going ‘downhill’

A patient advocacy group welcomes Government changes to the Therapeutic Products Bill, but believes more needs to be done to maintain patients’ access to medications.

Patient Voice Aotearoa has lobbied the Government to make changes to the new Therapeutic Products Bill which is going through Parliament, and the Government listened to some of their concerns.

The bill will replace the Medicines Act 1981 with a new set of regulations for medicines and natural products.

Patient Voice Aotearoa was concerned that under the new bill rongoā Māori, traditional Māori healing, would be Government regulated and people would not be able to import life-extending medicines not available in New Zealand.

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They were also worried cancer patients would be prevented from using Givealittle pages to raise money for unfunded drugs, or speaking publicly because the word sale had been removed from the new bill’s section on advertising.

The existing Medicines Act prevents medical advertisements promoting any sale, but the new bill had defined an advertisement as communication for the purpose of promoting the product in any way whatsoever.

But Health Minister Ayesha Verrall and Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare this weekend announced changes to the bill to exempt small-scale natural health product manufacturers and rongoā Māori practitioners from regulation.

The Select Committee will also recommend changes to the bill to allow the importation of medication.

“I know this is a major issue for a number of people and I welcome the proposed changes that will enable New Zealanders to import prescription medicines,” Verrall said.

“I also want to provide reassurance that [the] Government has never had any intention to restrict Givealittle pages around unfunded drugs.”

Verrall said the changes recognised the bill’s original draft went too far.

Patient Voice Aotearoa chairman Malcolm Mulholland said it was good news on three fronts, with rongoā being excluded; advertising being further defined to exclude Givealittle pages, speaking publicly and media coverage; and the importation of medicine could continue.

But there were still two areas he wanted to change.

“We’ve managed to resolve three of those five issues, but we need to resolve all five or otherwise medication access in New Zealand is going to go downhill and pretty fast.”

He said clinical trial framework would still be transferred from the Health Research Council, where a decision needed to be made in 45 days, to Medsafe, which could take up to two years.

“Patients accessing clinical trials don’t have two years to wait. Why go from a month and a half to two years?”

There was also no section 29 equivalent in the new bill, he said. Section 29 allows patients to access unregistered medicines quickly, such as in compassionate access schemes.

Mulholland said 2.3 million packages of medicines were used under section 29 in New Zealand annually, for conditions including cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

He was hopeful the Government would listen to them, as it had over the other changes.

He said the only other option for patients who needed unfunded medication was to go to another country where those drugs were funded.

“There’s only one option and that’s leave. Leave or die. That’s the bit for the life of me I can’t figure out.”

The second reading of the bill is later this month and the third reading is in August.