Bill will permit advertising unapproved medicines in some cases
The Medical Products Bill, intended for introduction to Parliament in 2026, will cover significant government decisions on promoting medicines and pharmacy ownership to enable pharmacists to focus on providing quality care to patients, recently released Cabinet papers indicated.
Under the changes, registered pharmacists no longer need to comprise the majority of the ownership of pharmacies and companies that own pharmacies, according to a news release from the government.
“This is an antiquated and unnecessary law that companies have found complex ways of working around,” said Casey Costello, associate health minister, in the news release.
The government noted that a supervisory pharmacist, a new role that the bill will require of all companies running more than one pharmacy, will be in charge of the company’s compliance with pharmacy standards and regulations.
According to Costello, the bill’s changes aim to remove the restrictions on community pharmacy ownership, improve flexibility and innovation, promote safe access to medicines and integrated healthcare, and ensure access to information about medicines and medical devices.
Under the bill, the following will continue:
The government’s news release noted that the bill will update the rules for advertising medicines and medical devices, including by allowing the advertisement and promotion of unapproved medicines in some situations.
Costello pointed out that the current legislation prohibits advertising the availability of a medicine without Medsafe approval.
“This restriction on advertising of unapproved medicines is about protecting consumers from treatments which may not be safe or effective, but it’s also important that our legislation allows some common-sense exemptions,” Costello said.
“People raising money for their family members to access a promising new treatment overseas shouldn’t be at risk of a fine or jail just because the manufacturer of that medicine hasn’t yet applied to bring it to New Zealand,” Costello added.
The government shared that the bill will clarify the definition of advertising – with activities like fundraising, news reporting, and education not regulated as advertising – to make the definition more easily understandable to manufacturers, health practitioners, and the public.
The news release noted that the bill will also build on the government’s planned reforms to permit the promotion of unapproved medicines at medical conferences and trade shows.
“Medical conferences will be able to promote new, innovative treatments to health practitioners, helping New Zealanders keep up with global advances in medicines and medical products,” Costello said.
The government stated that the bill will enable the promotion of unapproved products, with authorization from the director-general of health, and maintain direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, with a power to regulate restrictions for certain types of advertising where necessary.
“Officials found no convincing evidence that direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines has significant negative public health effects,” Costello said.
Costello added that these efforts to modernise medicines advertising regulations will assist the public in accessing information regarding medical products, the sector in understanding their responsibilities, and health practitioners in expanding their innovative treatment options.
