NZ’s leading NHP company welcomes new legislation
Media statement
For immediate release 26
March 2012
NZ’s leading NHP company welcomes new legislation
NZ’s largest natural health products company says the three year transition time for the introduction of a regulatory regime governing the manufacturing, marketing and exporting of natural health products is “too long”.
“We’ve been waiting long enough for this legislation. Let’s get on with it and make a start by reducing the transition period from three to two years,” Vitaco’s general manager of New Zealand sales, Brian Dewar, told a Parliamentary Select Committee this morning [26 March].
The Health Select Committee was meeting in Auckland to hear submissions on the Natural Health Products Bill. An East Tamaki company, Vitaco, is New Zealand’s largest dietary supplements and natural health products company with 400 employees and more than $100 million in export sales.
Mr Dewar told the Committee that Vitaco was “overwhelmingly in favour” of nearly all aspects of the proposed legislation.
“We believe, with some amendments, the resulting legislation will serve the best interests of the New Zealand consumer, our export industry, the New Zealand economy and the natural health products sector, Mr Dewar told the Select Committee.
Mr Dewar said Vitaco would like to see amendments to the Bill in five areas. They were:
• strengthening the
Bill to ensure large scale manufacturing, marketing and
exporting expertise was represented on the regulatory
body’s expert advisory committee;
• creating two
databases for approved products – one for products
intended for the New Zealand market, the other for
export-only products;
• strengthening the clause
relating to a code of manufacturing practice and being more
specific about the definition of Good Manufacturing
Practice;
• making sure the process for the
pre-approval of products approved by other regulatory
regimes was timely and cost effective; and
• reducing
the Bill’s transition period from three to two
years.
Ends