Medicines Amendment Bill – Health Committee calls for submissions

The Medicines Amendment Bill is with the Health Select Committee for consideration and is open for submissions until 19 May. Submissions must be made through Parliament’s submission portal. The Ministry cannot accept submissions.

Read more about the Medicines Amendment Bill.

The Bill proposes a number of changes to improve access to medicines. It does this by:

• Introducing a streamlined verification pathway for medicines approvals in New Zealand,
• Enabling nurse practitioners to prescribe unapproved medicines under section 29 of the Medicines Act 1981,
• Enabling all authorised prescribers to prescribe unapproved medicines that are funded by Pharmac as alternatives to approved medicines that are in short supply.

The Bill also updates the membership requirements for the Medicines Classifications Committee.

Please note the Cabinet papers and other associated papers about the Bill have not yet been released, but we expect these will be up shortly on the Ministry of Health website.

The Regulatory Impact Statement for the Verification Pathway proposal in the Bill is available online on the Ministry for Regulation website.

Contact us

At this time, we do not have any further updates on the development of the Medical Products Bill. However, we encourage you to keep an eye on the Ministry’s webpage, which will be regularly updated with latest information.

If you, or people you know would like updates on the future regulation of medicines, medical devices, and natural health products, we encourage you to subscribe to the newsletter.

If you would like more information or to contact the team, please contact us at therapeuticproducts@health.govt.nz

Ministry of Health - Therapeutic Products