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Speaker 1: To the Health Department, where the law allowing faster approval

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Speaker 1: of medicines by far makers passed. Also twelve months scripts

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Speaker 1: will become a thing as of February. The FARMAC law,

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Speaker 1: by the way, also allows medical conferences to advertise yet

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Speaker 1: to be approved medicines. That was the weirdest thing ever. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: Simming and Brown is the Health Minister and with us morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning.

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Speaker 1: That conference thing, How was that ever a thing?

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Speaker 2: Oh, look, it's a very weird piece of legislation. When

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Speaker 2: we found out about it, we asked the officials whether

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Speaker 2: that heard of Google and whether or not some doctors

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Speaker 2: might use Google to actually work out what drugs might

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Speaker 2: be available in other countries. And of course it made

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Speaker 2: absolutely no sense that medical conferences were not able to

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Speaker 2: advertise non approved medicines. And so we've changed the law.

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Speaker 2: David Seymour and I work together. We've changed the law

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Speaker 2: and now we've got medical conferences coming to New Zealand

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Speaker 2: which otherwise would have been in Australia, which is fantastic

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Speaker 2: for our economy.

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Speaker 1: So that's sort of a tourism move, isn't it, Because

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Speaker 1: conferences didn't come because of that very rule. I mean,

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Speaker 1: what do you reckon we've missed out on over the years.

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Speaker 1: It must be tens of millions of dollars.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it would be tens of millions of dollars. I

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Speaker 2: mean two conferences next year, three three hundred people combined

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Speaker 2: are coming to New Zealand, which is fantastic for Auckland,

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Speaker 2: fantastic for New Zealand. But if you add that up

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Speaker 2: over many years, that would be you know, thousands less,

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Speaker 2: thousands of fewer visitors coming to New Zealand spending money

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Speaker 2: in hotels and restaurants and accommodation and lo and behold.

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Speaker 2: It's all because they they weren't able to advertise medicines

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Speaker 2: which may be approved in other countries. And as I said,

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Speaker 2: Google is available free of charge to everybody.

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Speaker 1: It's nuts the far Maake approval thing. So in other words,

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Speaker 1: if it's approved in one of our close jurisdictions, we

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Speaker 1: can do it here. That's another I mean, I'm not

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Speaker 1: pissing in your pocket to put it bluntly, but I

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Speaker 1: mean that's another painfully obvious thing, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, And again, so we're working with David Seymour

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Speaker 2: and this is part of our coalition agreement to make

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Speaker 2: sure that we could literally speed up the approval of

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Speaker 2: these of drugs. So we do it for cars, so

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Speaker 2: you know, if a car has approved in a different jurisdiction,

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Speaker 2: we allow that car to be recognized here in New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: We don't go into a complete safety check all over again.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's about the same with medicine. So if

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Speaker 2: it's approved and a comparable jurisdiction or two other comparable jurisdictions,

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Speaker 2: it can then be approved in the thirty days by

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Speaker 2: med Safe here in New Zealand. So it's about making

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Speaker 2: medicines more available to New Zealand as faster, which is

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Speaker 2: what we want.

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Speaker 1: What was their pushback argument? What was it? They were

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Speaker 1: arguing that we're so special, so unique, so different, they

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Speaker 1: needed to do their own investigation.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think it's part partially that you know, these

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Speaker 2: laws haven't been looked at for a long period of time,

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Speaker 2: so they'll put back it. They'll put in place in

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Speaker 2: a period of time when these approval processes weren't or

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Speaker 2: the information shearing may not have been as easy. But ultimately,

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Speaker 2: you know, through COVID, we saw how this really slowed

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Speaker 2: down approvals for critical medicines you know, we campaigned on

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Speaker 2: that at the last election part of our coalition agreement.

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Speaker 2: We've now delivered it.

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Speaker 1: The twelve month script. How much of this has always

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Speaker 1: been about I mean the doctor would argue, well you

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Speaker 1: and never know you might be growing another leg. But

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Speaker 1: how much of it's really about the admin fee for

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Speaker 1: the pharmacist and the script fee for the doctor.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think I mean, ultimately this will save patients

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Speaker 2: up to one hundred and five dollars a year by

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Speaker 2: doctors being able to make up twelve months prescriptions. It

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Speaker 2: will still be the doctor's description, so depending on the

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Speaker 2: condition of the patient. But if you think about long

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Speaker 2: term conditions such as asthma and other you're managing diabetes,

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Speaker 2: other things which patients are having to go back every

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Speaker 2: three months to their GP, that will free up time

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Speaker 2: with the GP. They're able to then see other patients

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Speaker 2: during that time. So ultimately it's about putting patients first,

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Speaker 2: making it easier for them to get the medicines they need,

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Speaker 2: and ultimately, if they've got more access to medicines, we

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Speaker 2: keep people healthy in the community and not turning up

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Speaker 2: to a hospital.

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Speaker 1: But how much pushback have your head from the pharmacist

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Speaker 1: and the doctors who aren't getting them money because they're

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Speaker 1: not writing scripts anymore.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think there's a variety of views in

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Speaker 2: both of those sectors in terms of their their view.

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Speaker 2: I think the reality is that our doctors are in

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Speaker 2: an enormous amount of pressure and a lot of they're

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Speaker 2: incredibly busy. We know how long it takes for people

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Speaker 2: to get appointments, which is a big issue that we're addressing.

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Speaker 2: But ultimately this will free up the ability for them

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Speaker 2: to see other patients.

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Speaker 1: And so I had Brian Rochan before and I didn't

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Speaker 1: ask him because it didn't have time. Where are we

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Speaker 1: at with the industry election.

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Speaker 2: So negotiations are ongoing, So there.

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Speaker 1: Are negotiations, active negotiations. People are around the table.

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Speaker 2: There are negotiations underway between the government and the unions

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Speaker 2: in terms of the senior doctors. That is before I

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Speaker 2: think the employment courts due to the fact that Health

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Speaker 2: New Zealander is applied to fix the terms of that agreement.

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Speaker 1: Okay, nice to talk, appreciate it very much, sum and

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Speaker 1: Brown Health Minister. Does any of that that you've just heard,

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Speaker 1: whether you are aware of it or not, just explain

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Speaker 1: to me. I mean, none of that's going to save

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Speaker 1: them if they're going to have trouble next year on

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Speaker 1: the election. Name you're not changing about because of that?

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Speaker 1: But is that not just good, basic common sense. They've

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Speaker 1: rectified a problem that really should have been rectified. Does

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Speaker 1: anyone actually disagree with any of what you just heard?

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Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news Talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

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