There are no vitamin patches listed on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods and there’s not enough evidence to show they work better than tablets.
From July 1, authorised psychiatrists will be able to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin in some circumstances. Here’s what we’re excited and concerned about.
Australia is the first country in the world to legalise the medical use of psychedelics. But without a public subsidy, few Australians will be able to afford them.
If the crisis worsens, more people will ask, how did this happen? The answer will be simple: governments made good laws, but they did not enforce them.
Paxlovid is one potential COVID drug for use at home. The idea is these can potentially be prescribed at the first sign of infection to prevent serious illness and death.
Whipping cream canisters contain nitrous oxide, which some people use to get high. But going ahead with a proposal before the TGA to ban them altogether would be an overreaction.
A serious event such as a blood clot could be caused by an underlying medical condition, a medication the person was taking at the time, or some other factor unrelated to the vaccine.
National drug regulators use evidence from clinical trials to decide whether new cancer drugs will be approved for use. But these studies are often flawed.
The proposed Australian ban of some types of breast implants is too little, too late. It also reveals regulatory failures that need to be fixed if Australian consumers are to be protected.
While PPS is approved in oral capsule form to treat bladder inflammation, it is not yet approved as in injection for knee and bone problems. But AFL players have been given special access.
Who should be legally responsible when 3D printed devices fail? Proposed changes to the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s regulatory framework have the potential to settle that question.
Ken Harvey, Monash University et Bruce Baer Arnold, University of Canberra
There is currently a weak process of checking claims made in advertisements for medicines, to ensure they don’t mislead or deceive consumers -this could be abandoned if a bill passes parliament.