MEDICINES (ADVERTISEMENT AND SALE) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister for Health (Mr A. J. Braga): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The purpose of this Bill, Sir, is to deal with and protect the public from unscrupulous vendors of medicines and quacks. It requires vendors of medicines to publish the ingredients of the particular medicine they sell. Advertisements in the Press, and particularly in the vernacular, of secret remedies make fantastic claims in the treatment of certain diseases. These are likely to beguile persons suffering from these diseases and to deter them from seeking proper medical advice. These advertisements are a danger to the public.

Another important aspect is the extraordinary claims on wrappers and pamphlets which go with the medicines. Fantastic prices are also often charged for these medicines. If a proprietary medicine is a genuine product, with reasonable therapeutic action in the treatment of an ailment for which it is recommended, then the makers have no excuse whatsoever for not disclosing its contents. Even before the 1941 Act was passed in England, most medicine manufacturers had already taken steps to disclose the formula and to sell under a protected trade mark. It may perhaps be said that the disclosure of the composition of a medicine may mean very little to the general public. This may be so, but it certainly does mean something to the medical profession as a whole, and, furthermore, the public will gradually be educated and pharmacists will be in a position to advise their customers of the value of the medicine. It is not unknown for proprietary medicines to be made to two different formulae according to the market, especially if the medicine contains substances which are scheduled as poisons in any particular country.

For example, one aphrodisiac preparation states that it contains Yohimbine. But Yohimbine is not scheduled as a poison. In Malaya, however, Yohimbine is a scheduled poison, and the formula is not disclosed here.

Another preparation - Strychnine - is distributed not only by pharmacists, but also by unlicensed medicine vendors under two different formulae.

There is another which purports to have encased in its capsules cosmic rays falling from the outer depths of space and blessed with miraculous curative powers for T.B.! On examination, only oils mildly carminative are the ingredients used which could be purchased for a few cents! This so-called marvellous medicine - a miraculous cure, as is claimed - is being sold at $40 per bottle.

It is also a practice for local patent medicine importers to import tablets and pills from the United Kingdom or elsewhere, or from the continent, in bulk and to pack them in small quantities, selling them with extravagant claims. Sometimes indecent advertisements assist the sale and high prices are charged for such products. There is no disclosure of the formula, and the health authorities have no idea what these medicines contain. The disclosure of formulae would considerably assist Government to check medicines for poisons, and the food and drug authorities could more readily be ensured that the medicine, in fact, is in accordance with the disclosed formula.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time.