IN September 2015, I reported that a colleague and I had submitted 10 representative complaints to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) about chiropractic clinic websites that made claims likely to harm consumers. These included treating non-musculoskeletal diseases such as asthma,…
THE primary role of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency is to protect the public by setting standards and policies that all registered health practitioners must meet. In August 2010, the Chiropractic Board asked all chiropractors to review their advertising, including their websites,…
COMPLEMENTARY medicines are currently subject to an expert review of medicines and medical devices regulation, prompting a submission from Complementary Medicines Australia.In its submission, made earlier this month, Complementary Medicines Australia (CMA) called for a “light touch — right-touch”…
AN analysis of the prevalence and severity of breaches of codes of conduct in the pharmaceutical industry in the UK and Sweden prompted me to review data in Australia.The PLOS Medicine analysis of complaints, complainants and rulings regarding drug promotion in the UK and Sweden between 2004 and 2012…
MEDICINES Australia has submitted edition 18 of its self-regulatory Code of Conduct to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for authorisation.The outcome will be interesting.In 2012, when edition 17 of the Code was released, the ACCC limited its authorisation to 2 years rather than the…
EARLIER this year comment was invited on a proposal to regulate the advertising of therapeutic goods, causing a great deal of angst among complementary medicine practitioners.The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) invited comment on advertising reform proposals via a regulation impact statement…
THE slow progress to open disclosure about the financial relationships between individual health professionals and the pharmaceutical industry moved one more step forward last week.The Medicines Australia (MA) Transparency Working Group released two reports — Principles for transparency and Transparency…
CONCERN about inducements to health professionals by the therapeutic goods industry is a worldwide phenomenon.Such inducements can lead to uncritical uptake of newer, expensive and less well evaluated products, and underutilisation of more cost-effective drugs and medical devices. The cost implications…