KEY POINTS:
The pharmaceutical industry is on the verge of a victory over a 700 per cent increase in the fees for consent to sell medicines in New Zealand.
In August 2006, the application fee for ministerial permission to sell new medicines rose from $15,300 to $122,625.
This was in anticipation of the increased cost of greater scrutiny of medicines by the proposed Australia New Zealand Therapeutic Products Authority.
But legislation to set up the new authority has been set aside as the Government could not muster enough support, mainly because of opposition to the inclusion of alternative medicines and products in the regulations.
The Researched Medicines Industry (RMI) complained about the fees to Parliament's regulations review select committee - the watchdog over the Government's powers to set regulations.
The committee says the RMI and the Government are mostly in agreement that the fee is too high, and a review will lead to the fees being cut and any overpayments being refunded.
- NZPA
