Return-Path: bionic@qldnet.com.au Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 18:27:51 +1000 From: bionic Reply-To: bionic@qldnet.com.au Organization: bionic products To: cafmr@pnc.com.au Subject: TGA Web address: http://xenios.qldnet.com.au/~bionic Then visit the Link to World Health Freedom THE TGA ADVERTISING CODE ISSUED LATEST UPDATE 17th DECEMBER 1997 As you are aware, we have anxiously been awaiting word on whether the Code will be presented to Parliament without any further amendments. The Australian Government Solicitor has informed us that changes to the Regulations to remove the supervision of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will be passed before Christmas. Subsequent enquiries to the Office of Government Drafting have not resulted in any information as to the final form of the Regulations. It is believed that the Regulations will entrench the position of the PMAA and NFAA as the controlling entities in the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code Council and remove the supervision of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over anti-competitive conduct within the Code Council. THE BILL FOR THE NEW REGULATIONS WERE SIGNED BY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL TO-DAY. Once the Regulations are gazetted (published in the Government Gazette) it is a requirement for the Regulations to sit on the floor of the House for 15 consecutive sitting days before the Regulations come into law. We have until March 1998. In the meantime, all those affected by this unfair Regulation will have to stew while the MPs and Public Servants enjoy their Christmas holidays! Interested parties (members of the public, natural therapists and others who are aware of the unfair circumstances of the representation of the large pharmaceutical companies and others who have commercial interests with pharmacists and the medical profession in the new Code Council and who are aware that the ACCC is to cease supervising these people in the Code Council) have found it impossible to obtain a response from the TGA. It has been rumoured that the TGA is about to spend $300 million to build and equip a new testing laboratory. How will such massive expenditure be funded? It is planned that mass de-registrations of the listed device and goods proprietors, together with hefty application and testing fees will be considered in the new regime. Small companies will not be able to afford these charges and so their goods will not be able to be legally advertised or sold. The TGA have admitted that competition principles should be secondary to what the TGA perceived to be a more important "public health" issue. Every manufacturer and retailer should be free to truthfully advertise their products benefits, and provided that there is no misleading and deceptive conduct for low-risk devices, regulation should be minimised, not increased. Suppose that a cure for cancer were discovered tomorrow; it would not be able to be published under the new TGA Code. If however the rights to such a discovery belong to a pharmaceutical company, the Code would no doubt undergo some hasty amendments. ONLY A MASS PROTEST WILL FORCE THE TGA TO FACE THIS ISSUE. Phone, fax or write today to request that Regulations considered not be passed to take away the monitoring role of the ACCC. If this is not done the Regulations will be passed and your right to free trade and to advertising will be a thing of the past. You should direct your protest to the Minister for Health and Family Services. Dr. Michael Woodridge P.O.Box 31 Box Hill Vic. 3218 -- Visit Bionic Products Webpage. http://xenios.qldnet.com.au/~bionic