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Stock in trade (subject to cancellation or revocation)

We have put in place a policy for products that fall within the following areas:

1. Request by registrant to cancel product(s)
2. Product licences revoked by the ACVM Group
3. Products cancelled for non-payment of fees.

Request by registrant

When a company advises the ACVM Group that they wish to cancel a registered product, and/or the ACVM Group advises that the licence is revoked, the following actions will be taken:

• Batch number and records of the last product distributed from the warehouse and/or other documentary evidence of cancellation will be requested.
• The company will be advised that, should any adverse events be reported, they will be charged the actual time taken (based on the current hourly rate) to conduct an investigation.
• In all cases except revocation of a licence, the ACVM Group will advise the company that product released from the warehouse before the licence is cancelled may continue to be sold in the marketplace. Stock contained in the warehouse MUST NOT be released. Companies that release such stock will be in breach of the Act, and compliance action will be undertaken.

Revocation of licence

The ACVM Group will advise that all stock must be immediately removed from the marketplace until completion of the investigation.

Unpaid fees

When a company has not paid annual fees by the date specified, the following action will be taken:

• ACVM Group will initiate the standard debt management process, up to enforcing section 82 of the ACVM Act, which suspends importation and manufacture of the product (this includes charging penalty interest).
• The company will be advised that section 82 has been enforced and they will be asked to provide batch number and records of last product distributed from their warehouse. Any additional stock contained in the warehouse MUST NOT be released. Companies that release such stock will be in breach of the Act, and compliance action will be undertaken.
• The company will be advised that payment of outstanding debt must be made within one month or section 83 of the ACVM Act, which allows the Crown to recover costs through the court system, will be enforced.
• If payment is not received, section 83 will be enforced with a recommendation made to the court to revoke the licence and recall product.

Registration numbers under the ACVM Act 1997

Under the ACVM Act, the numbering of registrations is to continue in the sequence that has been used for products licensed/registered under the Animal Remedies and Pesticides Acts. The only noticeable difference this will make to applicants is in the registration statement on label content. In order to differentiate products under the Act, the registration number will be prefixed with 'A' for veterinary medicine products and 'P' for plant compound products, e.g. 'Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997, No. A1234' for a veterinary medicine or 'Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997, No. P2468' for a plant compound.

A small number of products that have already been registered under the ACVM Act have not had this prefix added to the registration number on their label content. Affected registrants will be contacted in order to correct this at the next reprinting of their labels.

Toxicology assessors

For some years now, the ACVM Group has had a relationship with the University of Surrey, England. This has seen the Group providing employment to third year students studying toxicology – enjoying increased expert resources (the students have completed the necessary subject modules to enable them to handle basic toxicology assessments) while giving the students valuable experience in the world of regulatory toxicology.

Laura Phillips is the fifth 'professional year' student that we have had; her term in the office finishes at the end of June. After a holiday, she will return to the University to complete her final year.

Because of an ongoing need for additional expertise to review the current MRLs listed in the NZ Mandatory Food Standard to ensure that the entries are still relevant and to rationalise definitions, we have taken on Nicola Reeves to replace Laura. Nicola (no relation of the National Manager Toxicology and Residues John Reeve – in fact a different surname!) will arrive in mid-June so that she can get on the job training from Laura before flying on her own for the year from 1 July.