E-DRUG: Australian shake-up of therapeutic good promotion
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The Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Health, the Hon Mark Butler has
released details of two related initiatives: a consultation paper on
advertising arrangements and a position paper on the promotion of
therapeutic goods. See:
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr10-mb-mb039.htm?OpenDocument
Comment on these documents can be found at:
http://www.auspharmacist.net.au/documents/harvtga2010.pdf
Subsequently, a Working Group on Promotion of Therapeutic Products has been
charged with responding to the paper on the future of self-regulation.
The group brings together a disparate collection of industry, consumer and
health professional representatives with the tasks of addressing the need
for greater consistency in standards between current industry codes and
brainstorming methods to strengthen and standardise self-regulation. It will
also investigate mechanisms to extend the application of codes to
non-members of industry associations, and to align industry codes with the
national registration of healthcare professionals.
Members include the Australian Dental Industry Association, ASMI,
AusBiotech, GMiA, In Vitro Diagnostics Australia, MTAA, and MA.
Consumer interests will be represented by the Consumer Health Forum of
Australia and Dr Ken Harvey.
Health care professional bodies are the AMA, the Australian Nursing
Federation, the Pharmacy Guild, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians
and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
The group first meets on 21 July.
Dr Ken Harvey
Adjunct Senior Lecturer
School of Public Health, La Trobe University
http://medreach.com.au
Mobile +614 1918 1910 | Fax: +613 9818 1875
k.harvey@medreach.com.au