E-DRUG: Advertising & regulation of therapeutic goods & services in Australia
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Advertising of therapeutic goods and services (and its regulation) in Australia; Complementary medicine regulation reform
The following may be of interest to the e-drug community:
Seminar: http://www.medreach.com.au/?p=2223
Editorial: Regulation of complementary medicines (in Australia):
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/imj.13548/full
Also
maybe of iinterest
Letter to The Age 02/10/2017: Heed Evidence
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-letters/energy-supplies�when\-a\-solution\-is\-just\-a\-breakdown\-in\-logic\-20171001\-gys65q\.html (Scroll down)
Consumer Affairs Victoria ordered Penguin to provide a �prominent warning� on all future books they publish about natural therapies (�Shining a spotlight on the self-help industry�, The Age, 30/9), explaining that the claims made are not evidence-based: http://bit.ly/2yCMecv.
A similar disclaimer was recommended for all listed complementary medicines by a recent independent Medicines and Medical Devices Review. The Therapeutic Goods Administration trusts that sponsors hold evidence to support the claims made. Not surprisingly, in a regulatory system that provides no pre-market evaluation and no effective penalties for non-compliance, this trust is misplaced. Eighty per cent of the small number of products subjected to post-marketing reviews by the TGA are found non-compliant.
The government rejected the recommendation. It also rejected the findings of a review of natural therapies, set up with the NHMRC, to determine if these therapies should continue to attract a private health insurance rebate. Despite finding no clear evidence that these therapies were clinically effective, the government declined to remove the rebate.
Cheers
Ken
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Dr Ken Harvey AM
Associate Professor
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
Monash University
Melbourne VIC 3004 Australia
kenneth.harvey@monash.edu