Small countries in a big world can choose to be nimble or they can choose to be stupid.

When it comes to medicines, New Zealand has chosen the second path. Rather than recognising authorisations provided by better-resourced overseas drug approval agencies, New Zealand requires local approval for new medicines.

New Zealand’s local medicine approvals agency, Medsafe, takes too long to check over the workings for medicines that have already been checked over and approved elsewhere. But the bigger problem is that drug companies are very slow to apply for Medsafe authorisation, if they apply at all.

To read the article on The Australian website, click here.