DISILLUSIONED by the Therapeutic Goods Administration's (TGA) handling of complaints relating to the marketing of healthcare products, public health advocate, Dr Ken Harvey, has resigned from the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Consultative Committee (TGACC).
In an article posted on the Pearls and Irritations public policy journal, Harvey said the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Framework was "in tatters".
"Having failed to halt a wave of wrongful conduct and in the face of growing numbers of complaints the TGA has given up on systematic enforcement," Harvey said.
While Harvey praised the TGA's action on COVID-19 advertising breaches, he said the regulator "had largely failed to deter unethical promotion, especially of 'complementary medicines'".
He added that "instead of investigating, and where necessary prosecuting unlawful conduct, the regulator is now closing files".
"As the Choice representative on the former Complaint Resolution Panel and Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code Council and, more recently the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Consultative Committee (TGACC), I had tried to encourage the TGA to focus more on consumer protection and less on industry assistance," he said.
"However, like others, I have concluded that, given its current leadership, the TGA will not change.
"I have now resigned as the Choice representative of the TGACC."
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