Law claims that King is 'patently wrong' in stating that public safety is at the heart of the decision to establish the Trans-Tasman agency and that she has reneged on promised and agreed regulatory reforms in 2000.
New Zealand this week said it would set up a new joint agency with Australia that will regulate dietary supplements. The natural health products industry fears this means a clampdown on its range of products and expensive registration costs. It is also concerned that the new agency will be dominated by Autralia's medicines watchdog, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which looks set to be given new powers to deal with supplements.
There has also been anger over the handling of the move by the government, which appears to have ignored a report by a committee set up to advise on regulation of the industry.
"King says New Zealanders are not being adequately protected from dietary supplements that have been found to cause serious illness and death. There is no evidence of this," argues Law. "Contrary to her assertion, there has not been a single death in New Zealand resulting from dietary supplements."
Law claims that the Ministry of Health has, in fact, been 'pursuing a joint agency for more than a decade'.
He also refers to the impact of the Pan Pharmaceuticals recall earlier this year, said to have cost New Zealand's industry $400 million. This is "a classic example of regulatory failure under the eye of the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration", argues Law. "It did not happen in New Zealand's so-called unregulated market."
New Zealand's health food and supplement industry is estimated to have an annual retail turnover of NZ$222 million. However costs to register products under the new authority could significantly damage the market. Local supplement manufacturers and importers will have to pay between $NZ800 and $NZ1000 to register a product under the Joint Authority scheme provided the formulation has no new ingredients. This could go up to $NZ10,000 or more with new ingredients, claims one manufacturers' association.