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HSA Seeks Views On Proposed Health Products Bill 
Posted on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - 12:00 AM

The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) plans to table a Bill in Parliament to enact the proposed Health Products Act. The proposed Act will serve to amalgamate the existing controls for regulating medicines and health-related products, which are currently spread out in four separate Acts, into one omnibus Act.

The press release is as follows:-

HSA Seeks Views On Proposed Health Products Bill

The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) plans to table a Bill in Parliament to enact the proposed Health Products Act. The proposed Act will serve to amalgamate the existing controls for regulating medicines and health-related products, which are currently spread out in four separate Acts, into one omnibus Act.

2 HSA is seeking views and feedback from the public and stakeholders from the healthcare industry as well as healthcare professionals on the proposed Health Products Bill. The Consultation Paper and the draft Bill are available on the HSA website at www.hsa.gov.sg and can also be accessed at the Government Online Consultation Portal at www.feedback.gov.sg. All feedback should be emailed to
hsa_feedback@hsa.gov.sg by 31 July 2005.

NEED FOR A CONSOLIDATED LEGISLATION

3 Currently, the controls for regulating medicines and health-related products reside in four separate legislation ? namely, the Medicines Act, the Poisons Act, the Sale of Drugs Act and the Medicines (Advertisement and Sale) Act.

4 Over the years, HSA has received feedback that having the regulatory controls fragmented and spread over different Acts made them confusing and difficult to understand. In addition, the overlapping of controls in some areas sometimes made compliance with the legal requirements unnecessarily complicated.

5 The proposed Act will amalgamate the existing controls for regulating medicines and health-related products into one omnibus Act. This move will reorder the legal provisions and make the regulatory controls easier to understand, especially for those in the health products industry.

6 HSA is also taking this opportunity to update the penalty provisions for contravening the controls which, in many cases, are outdated and do not reflect the current economic realities.

7 In addition, the proposed Health Products Act will incorporate features that allow more flexibility for the gradual and modular application of different controls of different types of health products for human use, including medical devices, pharmaceuticals, traditional medicines and health supplements. While the proposed Act itself will not result in any immediate change in HSA?s regulatory policies for any particular type of health product, it will provide a uniform platform on which the regulatory framework for all the different types of health products can be developed and reviewed in the future.