Fed: Price of vitamins, herbal medicines to rise under TGA fees

AAP General News (Australia)
04-23-2009
Fed: Price of vitamins, herbal medicines to rise under TGA fees

By Melissa Jenkins

CANBERRA, April 23 AAP - Consumers will be charged more for vitamins and other dietary
supplements if the complementary medicines government regulator has its way, a lobby group
warns.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which relies on industry to recoup its
costs, is proposing to lift listing and evaluation fees charged to companies by 14.3 per
cent.

Last year, the TGA's fees only rose in line with inflation.

The Complementary Healthcare Council of Australia argues such an "enormous" increase
in fees will be passed on to consumers.

But a TGA spokeswoman argues the cost to consumers will be negligible.

The council's executive director, Wendy Morrow, said the fee increase will inevitably
lead to price rises, especially for products made by small manufacturing companies.

"The will have no choice but to pass it onto consumers," she told AAP on Thursday.

"We just believe that making such an enormous increase at such an economically unstable
time would be disastrous for industry and the flow-on would be to consumers.

"If it's a medicine that you are taking long-term, it can be quite significant for
consumers, particularly pensioners and people with children."

The only option manufacturers would have other than increasing prices would be to take
products off the market, Dr Morrow said.

The TGA is forecasting a $1 million deficit for 2009-10.

A spokeswoman said the fees are less than half of one per cent of turnover for the
complementary medicines sector.

"The proposed increase in fees will result in a negligible increase in costs to the
consumer," she told AAP.

The fees paid by the sector had fallen short of meeting costs by about $2.5 million,
the spokeswoman said.

"This shortfall has been met by cross-subsidisation from other industry sectors particularly
prescription medicines and medical devices," she said.

"It is not fair to expect other sectors to continue this cross-subsidisation and fees
paid by the complementary medicines sector need to increase."

Even with the increase there will be a cost recovery shortfall of about $500,000 in
2009-10, the spokeswoman said.

AAP mj/ht

KEYWORD: COMPLEMENTARY

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