7. Question No. 7—HealthTANYA UNKOVICH (NZ First) to the Associate Minister of HealthQuestion No. 7—Health7. TANYA UNKOVICH (NZ First) to the Associate Minister of Health: What recent announcements has she made regarding the repeal of the Therapeutic Products Act 2023? Hon CASEY COSTELLO (Associate Minister of Health): Yesterday I announced that the Government will repeal the Therapeutic Products Act 2023 by the end of this year—promise made promise kept. Repealing the Act responds to the concerns of industry consumers and practitioners who felt the Act would lead to overregulation of low-risk products impose unnecessary costs and lead to products becoming more expensive or unavailable. Repealing is also cost-effective. Funding hadn't been provided for all the change needed to put this Act into effect—for example creation of the new regulatory agency and associated IT systems that would have been required. Tanya Unkovich: Can she provide any examples of how the Act would have led to overregulation? Hon CASEY COSTELLO: As an example low-risk medical devices like bandages and tongue depressors would require approval from the New Zealand regulator with no clear guidelines about how these devices would be assessed relative to higher-risk devices like pacemakers. The Act would have also required medical device exporters to obtain New Zealand market authorisation even though what matters to the exporter is meeting standards required in their markets. This double regulation imposed red tape and cost instead of encouraging economic growth. Tanya Unkovich: What plans if any does she have to replace the Therapeutic Products Act? Hon CASEY COSTELLO: This Government knows that replacing the Therapeutic Products Act with a lasting robust solution that appropriately balances oversight and efficiency is critical. I believe that many of the problems associated with the Act stem from it trying to do too much by including natural health products. As such I plan to develop two separate pieces of legislation for consideration: one related to medicines and medical devices and the other for natural health products. Tanya Unkovich: What benefits does she consider can be gained from this approach? Hon CASEY COSTELLO: Benefits for all who rely on health products. Medicines and medical devices require different regulatory approaches than natural health products because of the varied profiles; industry practitioner and consumer needs; and opportunities for innovation. Modern risk-proportionate regulation of medicines and medical devices will allow New Zealand to benefit from innovations such as gene therapy and artificial intelligence while managing the avoidable harms we have seen from medical devices such as surgical mesh. Tanya Unkovich: Why does treating natural health products separately make sense? Hon CASEY COSTELLO: Advice from officials and my conversations with industry groups such as the Natural Health Alliance and Natural Health Products New Zealand identified that the Therapeutic Products Act would have imposed unnecessary costs and red tape on low-risk products. This would have limited consumer choice and negatively impacted traditional medicine practitioners and rongoā Māori. Meanwhile unlocking the potential of our natural health products export sector is estimated to be worth nearly half a billion dollars in export revenue every year.