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AgVetLink December 2003

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ACVM Group liaison with:

Commerce Commission

A recent complaint to the ACVM Group was passed on to the Commerce Commission for their consideration.

The claims made regarding the product in question are considered by the ACVM Group to possibly be misleading because they are not consistent with the current approval for the product under the ACVM Act. The claims, however, are unlikely to lead to a significant breach of the thresholds agreed for risks managed under the ACVM Act (i.e. risks to trade in primary produce, risks to animal welfare and risks to agricultural security), so it was not considered appropriate for them to be dealt with by the Group. However, the ACVM Group considers that the nature of the claims possibly breaches consumer legislation.

Select Committee, when considering the ACVM Act in its early stages, noted that there was no need for the ACVM Act to consider consumer protection for its own sake because this was already adequately covered in existing legislation.

This was a change from the previous legislation (the Animal Remedies Act) where advertising of registered products had a level of control exerted by the Animal Remedies Board. Therefore, the ACVM Group has passed on the complaint to the Commerce Commission for consideration of the legal status of the claims.

The Group has provided a brief summary of the claims and will provide further technical advice if this is required.

Compliance update

Following a complaint regarding a pharmacist who was compounding for veterinarians, we have conducted an investigation that has highlighted the lack of pharmacists’ knowledge of the ACVM Act. It was also evident from this investigation that the manufacturing of ‘finished’ product may be a fairly common practice, so there is a ‘slice of life’ audit underway into the compounding of medicines on behalf of veterinarians. The ACVM Group will consider what further action to take following the report from the Compliance and Investigation Group (CIG) on the issue.

In addition to the investigation above, the NZFSA is following up on complaints regarding homeopathic products. Some homeopathic remedies and the claims or advertising surrounding them are causing concern in the farming industry where the products may be touted as an effective alternative to veterinary medicines.

Recently the ACVM Group has been advised of a number of situations where companies are advertising claims that have not been approved. We are taking action to resolve these on a case by case basis.

There have been a number of queries about the outcomes of the ‘slice of life’ audit process. The ACVM Group is working with the CIG and the NZFSA Communications team to produce a public document to summarise the findings and recommendations of each audit, along with the ACVM/NZFSA response.

We would stress that the function of these audits is to assist in monitoring the effect of the ACVM legislation. They rely to a large extent on the goodwill of those selected, and it is not intended (unless there is a significant breach) that sanctions or prosecutions would follow any findings. As is stated in the Compliance Policy, we would work in the first instance on an education process to rectify any concerns.

Note for registrant companies: change to invoice date for annual fees

Each year the ACVM Group collects annual fees for each registered product and each product of an agricultural compound listed in Schedule 3. This annual charge, paid in advance, is an amount that covers a 12 month period from 1 July to 30 June of any given year.

Historically, this charge has been collected from the issue of invoices in July of each year and monies are collected over the subsequent months. This has resulted in various problems from the non-payment of fees through to part-refunds due to timing of cancellations.

Consequently, in line with section 4(3) of the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (Fees and Charges) Regulations 2002, payment of annual fees will now be required to be paid in advance of 1 July each year. Where payment has NOT been received before 1 July, the trade name products and products listed as agricultural compounds in Schedule 3 will be prohibited from being imported or manufactured and will incur appropriate penalties as described in the ACVM debt management process.