After more than a decade of reviews and assessments, plan to create a therapeutic products agency is abandoned
Australia and New Zealand have dumped plans for a trans-Tasman medicines watchdog after more than 10 years of delays.
The two countries agreed in 2003 to set up a joint regulator but the proposal stalled under successive governments.
In 2011, Labor signed a statement of intent to create an “Australian and New Zealand therapeutic products agency” within five years.
But the plans to replace Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration and the New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority have now been ditched.
Australia’s health minister, Peter Dutton, and his New Zealand counterpart, Jonathan Coleman, said on Thursday the decision was made following a review of the proposal and an assessment of the costs and benefits to each country.