New Australian legislation will improve access to medicines and cut red-tape

Legislation introduced to Parliament on the final sitting day of 2016 will enable faster access to certain new medicines for Australian patients and help to cut unnecessary red tape for industry too.

The Therapeutic Goods Amendment (2016 Measures No. 1) Bill 2016 was introduced by Health Minister Sussan Ley, and is the first legislative step toward the full implementation of the Medicines and Medical Devices Review.

The bill includes measures which support the introduction of new expedited pathways for the marketing approval of certain medicines and medical devices, by providing a regulation-making power to set out the details of the new pathways for priority review, Ms Ley noted.