What’s the point of Medsafe?

Forums › Health and fitness › What’s the point of Medsafe?

Geektastic

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#310615 6-Nov-2023 06:40

I was just reading an article about Covid vaccines and some new ones.

The new ones are already approved in Europe and Australia.

Medsafe is “considering” them.

I cannot for the life of me see the point in having our own bureaucracy duplicate those processes. We’re physiologically the same as humans in Australia and Europe. It just seems like an enormous waste of time and money.

Is there a reason we need to do this?

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#3156474 6-Nov-2023 07:03

Do you mean, why does MedSafe operate at all?

or specifically on Covid-19 vacancies?

Lias

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#3156499 6-Nov-2023 07:52

Bureaucracy for the sake of bureaucracy IMHO. If it's approved in EU/UK/USA/AU it should be approved here.

I dislike medsafe for other reasons (if you've ever tried self importing unfunded medicine to NZ you'll understand)

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Handsomedan

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#3156564 6-Nov-2023 08:54

My issue with them is that they also prevent certain things coming in but don't offer good alternatives or reasonable grounds for the ban.

I feel Pharmac with its lack of funding for certain things also as frustrating. I am glad I haven't needed anything that they drag their feet on, but man, if I did, I would be heading overseas immediately.

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Batwing

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#3156565 6-Nov-2023 08:56

We need that covid vaccine though that they're dragging their feet on

decibel

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#3156593 6-Nov-2023 09:50

I used to think the same as the above people but I found out recently that the USA version of Medsafe never allowed Thalidomide into the US.

Lucky for them.

As a result, I am now not so sure on their usefulness.

mkissin

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#3156599 6-Nov-2023 10:10

Medicines are all a tradeoff in risk/reward. There's probably no universally good medication that is super effective and has no side effects in any case whatsoever.

That calculus may be different in different locations for many reasons, so I do support having a local body determine that.

Does it end up with some fairly ridiculous situations? Yes, inevitably. There's probably some tweaking that may be useful.

However, to give a fairly topical but fictional example, the USA may be OK with allowing a more risky antiviral drug because they have a much higher incidence of COVID due to vaccine hesitancy. Here, with higher jab uptake it may not be worthwhile to allow that same level of risk. There's mounting evidence that Molnupiravir may not be worth the risk (unsurprisingly, in my opinion).

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afe66

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#3156622 6-Nov-2023 10:51

There are also medicines that are used all over world but not in America.

frankv

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#3156634 6-Nov-2023 11:32

We are in fact somewhat different from Europe and Australia in terms of our mix of origins and therefore genetics. Whilst a drug or vaccine may be "safe enough" for Europeans and those descended mostly from Europeans, it may not be "safe enough" for Pacific Islanders (or vice versa). The safety of a medicine for Pacific Islanders is unlikely to be investigated by European or America agencies. "Safe enough" is relative, depending on the harm done to affected individuals and the number of those individuals, and the benefit to the individuals and society. It's also ethical, as in "Are we willing to cause the deaths of 2 or 3 in return for saving hundreds?" but also "Are we willing to cause the deaths of 2 or 3 Pacific Islanders in return for saving hundreds of mostly Europeans?"

MikeB4

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#3156639 6-Nov-2023 11:56

For someone that uses serious medication and medical equipment Medsafe is essential. Also don't confuse Medsafe and Pharmac.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

mattwnz

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#3156686 6-Nov-2023 14:12

frankv:

We are in fact somewhat different from Europe and Australia in terms of our mix of origins and therefore genetics. Whilst a drug or vaccine may be "safe enough" for Europeans and those descended mostly from Europeans, it may not be "safe enough" for Pacific Islanders (or vice versa). The safety of a medicine for Pacific Islanders is unlikely to be investigated by European or America agencies. "Safe enough" is relative, depending on the harm done to affected individuals and the number of those individuals, and the benefit to the individuals and society. It's also ethical, as in "Are we willing to cause the deaths of 2 or 3 in return for saving hundreds?" but also "Are we willing to cause the deaths of 2 or 3 Pacific Islanders in return for saving hundreds of mostly Europeans?"

Although that maybe true, when they give these vaccine out, I don't think they have ver given out different versions of covid vaccine to pacific islanders. Plus they are supposed to be tested by the manufactures anyway with their trials, and how is a small countries testig processes going to be much better than that anyway. They also have a big pacific island population in Australia. IMO they should probably merge with Australia, which is now common for many things like this to get economies of scale and speed.

MikeB4

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#3156690 6-Nov-2023 14:18

I have mentioned this here previously, my daughter is a medical doctor and is now a medical research scientist. When I asked her about Medsafe a while back and do we need it her response was an emfatic yes. I asked my son (psychologist) after seeing this thread and his answer was the same.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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mattwnz

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#3156698 6-Nov-2023 14:43

It is not whether such an organisation is needed, it is whether it could be merged with Australia's equivalent, to potentially have more resources and better economies of scale, and avoid duplication. That potentially saves both money and time.

MikeB4

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#3156703 6-Nov-2023 14:55

mattwnz:
It is not whether such an organisation is needed, it is whether it could be merged with Australia's equivalent, to potentially have more resources and better economies of scale, and avoid duplication. That potentially saves both money and time.

The idea of "budget" medical safety is ludicrous.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

mattwnz

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#3156708 6-Nov-2023 15:06

MikeB4:
mattwnz:

It is not whether such an organisation is needed, it is whether it could be merged with Australia's equivalent, to potentially have more resources and better economies of scale, and avoid duplication. That potentially saves both money and time.

The idea of "budget" medical safety is ludicrous.

But have a joint testing system with Australia would potentially produce far better results and with more speed. Cost saving would just be a by product of that, and not the reason for doing it. Similar to when councils merge, they can produce cost savings by removing duplication and having a bigger pool of resources, shared across a far larger population. But even so in NZ NZs health system is i a very poor shape and it is due to money and lack of budget.

ANglEAUT

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#3156718 6-Nov-2023 15:33

mattwnz: ... Similar to when councils merge, they can produce cost savings by removing duplication and having a bigger pool of resources, shared across a far larger population. ...

[/offtopic] That's how you end up with corporations bigger than governments & the Auckland Super City. In a lot of these situations, the decision making is removed from the population / locality that is affected. Generally, that is a bad thing [/offtopic]

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

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