Natural health products are a $2.3 billion industry. Photo / 123RF
The natural health products industry says a gaping hole in proposed new sectoral legislation means a $500 million-a-year export barrier and information vacuum for New Zealanders will continue.
Natural Health Products NZ, which says it represents 80 percent of dietary supplement and natural health product companies in $2.3 billion industry, is alarmed that an update on Therapeutic Products Bill shows that ‘it excludes what a year of discussions with government officials and ministers has sought: to allow evidence-based therapeutic claims for natural health products.
The organization wants the bill amended to allow all therapeutic and health claims authorized by Australia and Canada.
It calls on the government to take the opportunity to update the definition of ‘therapeutic’ in the ‘obsolete’ Medicines Act 1981 so that it can be activated in the proposed new legislation.
The Medicines Act and Dietary Supplements Regulations prohibit therapeutic claims unless a product is a medicine.
“There has been a high degree of integrity in the way authorized claims for natural health products in Australia and Canada have been assessed,” said Samantha Gray, Director of Government Affairs for Natural Health Products NZ.
“Aligning this country’s claims with those of Australia and Canada will quickly address barriers to our industry’s export market by enabling New Zealand to compete effectively in the global marketplace – which is not currently not possible.
“The export potential is huge. We estimate that in 2019, our lack of an export-only exemption and failed regulatory reform cost us up to $500 million in lost opportunities globally.”
The estimate was based on a comparison with Australia’s export performance in the sector and a benchmarking of sectors where New Zealand, which has a strong reputation for product integrity and safety, achieves strong performers globally, such as dairy and honey, Gray said.
The Department of Health told the Herald it was “working to allow evidence-based claims for natural health products under new legislation.”
The bill was being reworked and was due to be presented to Parliament at the end of this year.
“We want to create a pathway to enable these claims so that consumers are able to make informed decisions about their own health and well-being, and to support industry and the sector.”
The department said it had been “in close liaison” with Health Canada and the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration. They had provided “valuable insight” into how their natural health product regulatory regimes worked in practice and the issues they continued to address, including compliance and enforcement.
“We are undertaking further work to compare their diets with our proposed diet.”
The department’s response that the bill is still being worked on is of little comfort to Natural Health Products NZ.
Gray: “The key point is that the department’s recent update to the Therapeutic Products Bill did not contain our main non-negotiable demand to allow evidence-based therapeutic claims for natural health products.
“In fact, the update made it clear that the department intended to do the exact opposite, so it cannot be added as a detail later, as this part of the proposed framework provides for an entirely different scenario. .
“Failing to provide evidence-based therapeutic claims for natural health products could lead to the worst of two scenarios in which our members are not allowed to make therapeutic claims on their products, but are faced with new compliance requirements and new costs.
Gray said on the survey results, the compound annual growth rate of the natural health products industry between 2014 and 2019 was 64%.
“One can only imagine how much more important this would be if the export-only exemption was activated and if we had achieved regulatory reform to ensure that consumers are properly informed about the products they buy.”
Gray said the Department of Health declined to clarify which product claims or types of claims will be included or excluded from the regulations.
The ministry said it was aware of the organization’s concerns and would continue to work with them to address them.
“As part of the ministry’s work on the new bill, we are responding to comments from stakeholders and authors of the 2019 Exposure Therapeutic Products Bill. The decision to include the products of natural health products in the new bill was made more recently and work is underway on what the specific provisions for natural health products will look like.
“The Bill is being drafted and is expected to be presented to Parliament at the end of 2022. Stakeholders will have an opportunity to comment on the Bill when it is considered by a select committee.”