Legislation modernising rules on who can prescribe medicines to patients and also streamlining the process for approving new drugs passed its first stage last night - five years later than it should have, according to Labour.
The Medicines Amendment Bill, which amends the Medicines Act 1981, passed its first reading yesterday with unanimous support and will now be considered by the health select committee.
Labour health spokeswoman Maryan Street welcomed the bill but questioned why the Government was only advancing the legislation now - "Why not five years ago?"
She said that similar legislation introduced by the Labour Government in 2007 was blocked by National, which was "playing naked politics" at the timeby "jumping on the bandwagon of people in the supplementary medicines industry".
Ms Street said National MP Tony Ryall, now Minister of Health, led the opposition to Labour's version, which also contained measures dealing with the establishment of a joint medicines regulator with Australia, on concerns it would "put up the cost of everybody's Berocca ... never mind that the intention was to regulate unregulated medicines coming in from overseas and being sold to New Zealanders".