Codex — The Sickness Indu$try's Last Stand
Eve Hillary—04/2005 (Updated) |
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The Australian Government in league
with the pharmaceutical industry is doing everything
it can to implement CODEX - the grand plan to eliminate
natural health alternatives to maximize pharmaceutical
profits. |
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PART 1 |
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| Preamble |
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 HAT IS CODEX?(34) In short it is an annual
World Health Organisation (WHO) sponsored gathering
of delegates in Europe, many of them trans-national
pharmaceutical corporations who are primarily focused
on increasing their market share, by pushing their
desired and arbitrary regulatory "standards" into
a global standard and forcing it onto the smaller
local supplement industry, all in the name of "international
regulatory excellence". The Codex Committee
is also bound by the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
treaties. The WTO is a global commercial police that
ensures countries are required to purchase from trans-national
corporations in favour of their own locally produced
goods, in the name of "lowering trade barriers".
This WHO/WTO joint effort called CODEX is in the
process of wiping out local supplement companies
and natural health care practices, to bring in more
drug based medicine, in what is euphemistically known
as "creating a level playing field",
while primarily giving the public a misleading impression
that someone in the World Health Organisation (WTO)
is looking after its health and safety. CODEX recommendations
are then adopted by regulators such as the Australian
TGA or the US FDA by various direct or indirect means
that end up as Acts and amendments that are passed
into law by Parliaments or Congress, usually without
public debate. |
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| In 2002 I unveiled Codex to a Brisbane, Australia
audience of 300 people. Only 3 knew anything about
it — the same three I'd spoken with before
the lecture. I then wrote a chapter on CODEX in my
book "Health Betrayal". Primary data
about CODEX is not easy to find.(34) And there remains
deliberate misinformation emanating from government
sources with close ties to trans-national corporations.
Meanwhile, the Australian regulator, the TGA (Therapeutic
Goods Administration) is deeply involved in the corporate
agenda as this article will track. The Australian
Health Minister, Mr. Abbott, has recently called
a Sydney talkback radio program to "reassure" the
presenter and listening audience that CODEX is not
an issue in Australia. At the same time there has
been no effort on the part of the government to publicly
reveal the extraordinary events that have delivered
Australia into corporate governance in health care.
This includes the very real possibility that many
cheap and effective natural remedies may no longer
be available to the public after July 1 when drastic
changes that have never been openly debated, are
set to be implemented by Parliament. |
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| It is my intention to reveal the fact that trans-national
pharmaceutical corporations have already assumed
the role of government at least where health care
is concerned. I intend to highlight what steps have
already been taken by corporate interests to move
Australia and New Zealand toward CODEX and toward
international corporate governance in the Asia Pacific
region. This being true, it would alter the basic
premise and agreement which Australian governance
was founded upon — Democracy. This agreement
cannot be altered except with the informed consent
of the majority and only after public debate and
referendum. It is my educated guess that most Australians
want democracy for themselves and that they would
want to preserve it for future generations. It is
my guess that Australians do not want to be governed
by trans-national corporations. It is my intention
to allow these issues to be debated, understood and
corrected by the electors, the only legitimate proprietors
of government at this time. |
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| Short History — Key
Data |
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| When debating regulatory matters I believe it
is essential to bear in mind that the supplement
industry and the drug industry are totally different
industries. The natural supplement industry and its
related discipline, natural health care is thousands
of years old with a proven tradition. For example,
Nostradamus used compressed rose petal pastilles,
rich in vitamin C to treat his patients suffering
from bubonic plague. Many of his patients survived
the dreaded disease, and Nostradamus himself, who
took the pastilles never succumbed to the illness. |
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| The modern supplement industry has been traditionally
locally owned by private or family companies and
evolved around its own proven quality and safety
standards. Traditionally using cheap and naturally
sourced raw ingredients, the supplement industry
has an enviable product safety record. In addition
an entire branch of natural and nutritional medicine
has developed over the centuries with a long tradition
of safety and a large body of scientific evidence
in support of its efficacy. A little known fact is
that literally thousands of peer-reviewed studies
exist to support the success of natural and nutritional
approaches to medicine.(36,37,38,39,40) There exist
many conditions that can only be significantly remedied
by nutritional medicine. |
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| The pharmaceutical industry as we know it, on
the other hand, only started in earnest about 60
years ago. Many drugs have been so recently synthesised
that their side effects will not be known for some
years to come. Pharmaceutical corporations rely on
patented artificial chemical drugs to generate most
of their profits. Aggressive drug company marketing
and image management has created the impression that
drugs are essential to health, when in fact deaths
from adverse drug reactions make up the fourth highest
cause of death in the US. Still stinging from the
market share lost through consumers opting for natural
supplements, the trans-national pharmaceutical corporations
have influenced the regulators to regulate supplements
as drugs when in fact vitamins and minerals are not
drugs but essential to all humans on a daily basis. |
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| The difference between drugs and nutrients is
that they are fundamentally opposites. There are
many conditions caused when sufficient nutrients
are not supplied to the body each day, but there
is no such thing as a drug deficiency. |
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| Author's Note |
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| I'm a health writer. I track the sickness
industry. I watch while powerful vested interests
infiltrate governments of sovereign nations. Lately
I'd been busy with some other issues and nearly
missed a hat trick that was being performed by Australian
politicians that would remove freedom of choice from
the community. I discovered it just in time when
an article came across my desk entitled "The
Codex threat to Australia — fact or fiction?" written
by a chap who sourced his information from a few
government websites. He opined that the Codex issue
was merely hype and nonsense and nothing much for
Aussies or anybody else in the world to worry about.
His article was published by the Australian Traditional
Medicine Society, an organisation that is supposed
to represent complementary health practitioners and
provide them with clear information about exactly
WHO's in charge of making decisions about supplements.
Frankly, I expected such a hose-down article as this
to more likely appear in a pharmaceutical company
trade magazine or as a press release from the TGA.
But I assumed the drug giants have their own spin
doctors, legions of them. And they are quite content
to have useful gophers disseminate their whitewash
to the rest of us. Later I discovered the article's
author regularly sat on a TGA committee called the
Interim Advertising Council, which has, along with
several pharmaceutical front organisations such as
the Medicines Australia and the Self-Medication Industry
set up an official advertising agency that so blatantly
serves drug company corporate interests that even
the AMA objects to it on the grounds that "the
process is occurring against a backdrop of enormous
pressure…from pharmaceutical companies and
others to open up to direct consumer advertising".(24,20) |
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| I must however give thanks to the article in
question, and to its author, Raymond Khoury, for
it led me to cast my attention back to Codex and
focus on a currently unfolding disaster in the Pacific
region that is only avoidable if the Electors get
a grip on the reins very soon. |
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| If you believe, as I do, that in time the stench
of sleaze, bribery, greed and dishonesty will reach
the nose of the ethical majority to be dealt with
accordingly, then you might agree that the sickness
industry is about to collapse in on itself by the
sheer weight of its own corruption. This is a time
when the drug industry and our "regulators" are
committing some stupid and desperate acts against
human rights. And our politicians don't look
good passing Parliamentary bills, acts and amendments
in the dead of night that arose through improper
influences. Remember their names, for it is they
who are accountable for their ethics. And it is we
who are accountable for the kind of society we have
allowed corporations to create in our name. |
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| Getting Health Care into
Perspective — Understanding CODEX |
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| It's official. US research shows that inappropriate
and dangerous medical treatments and adverse drug
reactions are now the number one cause of death.(4)
To some it was no surprise. It seemed an inevitable
outcome from the 1980's when health care was
taken over by "health care" corporations
and the pharmaceutical industry. Then the bottom
line in health care became profit instead of sending
the patient home well and drug free, if possible.(13) |
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| There are still no Parliamentary enquiries into
the deaths of 18,000 Australians each year, killed
by inappropriate doctoring and prescribed pharmaceutical
drugs that are licensed by the TGA (the Australian
regulator). The cause of these avoidable deaths has
been known by the government for over ten years when
Dr. Runciman made it known in a report he prepared
to the government in 1995. And yet nothing has been
done about it. This makes these unnecessary deaths
a deliberate act on the part of the perpetrators,
the medical and pharmaceutical corporations and the
Australian government. This act is the equivalent
of deliberately exterminating all living beings from
an entire large sized Australian country town each
year.(1,2,3) This
killing for profit has knowingly continued for the
past 10 years. |
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| In addition to the death toll, 50,000 Australians
are maimed and disabled, not by their diseases, but
by the "health care system" which includes;
bad doctoring and serious or permanent damage from
drugs that were licensed by the TGA. Yet there are
no outraged politicians giving undertakings on the
Senate steps to find the culprits, to stop the criminality
of it. This appears astonishing, since 187 Australians
are unnecessarily killed and maimed each day — that's
seven Australians killed or maimed per hour by conventional
health care — more Australians than were ever killed
in all the wars. By the time you have read this another
Australian will die or be disabled by inappropriate
medical treatment or an adverse reaction from a drug
that was licensed and approved by the TGA. No memorials
are erected to these victims.(1,2,3) |
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| Where is Mainstream Media? |
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| A few years ago the media conducted a feeding
frenzy about an unfortunate person who died allegedly
of an allergic reaction to royal jelly, a highly
nutritious food that worker bees feed to the hive
queen bee. (Unfortunately many more fatal allergic
reactions occur annually than ever before, to both
synthetic and to natural substances, due to the fact
that general immunological health is declining through
environmental degradation.) The person had ingested
both the jelly and a meat sausage before the allergic
reaction occurred, one that could equally have been
caused by the preservative in the sausage. However,
the TGA launched a lengthy investigation into the
royal jelly, and required Royal Jelly to carry a
health warning on the label. The sausage, of course
was not investigated, nor allocated a health hazard
label, one that the fatty, preserved product could
arguably deserve, since the nitrite preservatives
in sausages are responsible for many serious or fatal
allergic reactions. |
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| To salvage any remaining integrity the media
would need to start presenting honest reports about
the serious damage done to victims of the pharmaceutical
and conventional health care corporations. Instead
it runs the occasional unfounded vitamin scare about
the purported dangers of vitamin C or Echinacea. |
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| WHO is the TGA? |
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| The TGA (therapeutic goods administration) is
the Australian "regulator" of drugs,
chemicals, genetically modified products, medical
devices and now nutritional supplements and herbs
which it calls "complementary medicines".
The TGA is a statutory body, created by an act of
Parliament over 20 years ago on behalf of the Australian
community. Its motto is "to ensure the safety
of all Australians". |
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| Since its inception as "watchdog",
the TGA has licensed and allowed genetically modified
foods into the country which opinion polls showed
the overwhelming majority of Australians did not
want. |
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| Despite hundreds of letters from concerned citizens
and chemically injured persons, the TGA has continued
to allow chemicals onto the market which are shown
to have toxic effects on humans even when used as
directed. |
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| In addition the TGA has licensed pharmaceutical
drugs such as Zyban, Vioxx and mercury laden vaccines
among others, despite available data about the potentially
serious and fatal effects these drugs have on humans.
The TGA still allows the drugs that cause a large
proportion of the 18,000 deaths and 50,000 serious
injuries through adverse drug reactions while on
the other hand it has compiled a large data base
on its regulation of natural substances including
vitamins, minerals, and even honey and olive oil,
listing them as medicines. |
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| The TGA has taken over the regulation of nutrients
which have traditionally been produced by a separate
and unique industry and are not part of the pharmaceutical
industry because nutrients are not drugs, they are
essential to all humans. Most health conscious persons
now take supplements because it is known that food
produced by modern agriculture is depleted in essential
nutrients. TGA now regulates nutrients as drugs requiring
evidence and clinical trials. There is no point to
conducting "clinical trials" to determine
whether persons need calcium or any other essential
nutrient since it has been a long established fact
that humans need all essential nutrients daily. The
sole advantage in regarding nutrients as drugs is
that the drug industry then stands to have exclusive
control of all supplement manufacturing, sales and
distribution. |
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| The TGA maintains close ties to the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and to the Codex Commission. Domestically,
it convenes various committees upon which sit well
known representatives of pharmaceutical interests
and pharmaceutical front organisations.(19,20,21) TGA regularly consults with and places on its committees
representatives of pharmaceutical and food companies
such as Proctor and Gamble, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson,
Roche, Eli Lily, Glaxo, Pfizer, Wyeth and many other
multination drug corporations. Without Australians' knowledge
or consent, the TGA routinely places corporations
in positions of power when making decisions about
Australian's health.(23) It could be argued
that any decision arising from this improper relationship
could well be a legal nullity. |
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| TGA Targets Pan |
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| Globally there was one privately owned large
supplier of ingredients for the manufacture of nutritional
supplements that was big enough to be in direct competition
with trans-national pharmaceutical corporations.
The supply chain of nutritionals and drugs has been
fiercely coveted by the multi-national pharmaceutical
corporations such as Roche, Merck and Wyeth, to name
just a few. But Sydney based Pan Pharmaceuticals
was a privately owned company, and a relatively big
player that supplied most of Australia and a portion
of the world market with ingredients for the formulation
of nutritional supplements and a large variety of
natural supplement products. |
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| In April 2003 the TGA raided Pan Pharmaceuticals,
giving the grounds that the company's travel
sickness product had included a faulty batch. The
company had already voluntarily recalled it and was
addressing the problem as was customary in the industry.
However, TGA handled Pan far differently from the
way it had dealt with any multi-national drug company.
The regulator immediately forced Pan to shut down
and within a few days recalled over 1600 natural
supplement products with which nothing was found
amiss on the routine testing that had occurred just
previously.(5) The regulator created chaos among
consumers and retailers alike as the TGA recall escalated
into the largest recall of natural products in history,
all the more extraordinary since there had been no
complaints about the company's supplements
prior to the recall. |
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| Moreover, the vitamin and mineral supplements,
which had caused no known ill effects, were classed
by the TGA as necessitating a class 1 recall, meaning
the regulator claimed the natural products would "cause
death or permanent injury". The TGA however,
provided no evidence that any vitamin or mineral,
and in particular Pan's had ever caused death
or disability. This TGA mischief created wide spread
anxiety about nutritional supplements in the public
mind. A feat that would have cost the Pharmaceutical
industry public relations machine millions of dollars,
was thus done overnight by the TGA "regulator".
The ruse terrified scores of little old ladies who
thought their calcium tablet would kill them and
demanded a refund from their health food store, but
it failed to impress those who already knew about
the war on alternative and complementary health.
And it particularly aroused suspicion in those who
relied on logical data to come to their conclusions. |
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| What this deception did, however, was to reveal
the TGA double standard in favour of drugs from drug
giants and against natural products that were produced
by Australian companies who were big enough to cut
into multinational drug company market shares. Meanwhile,
any evidence contained in the recalled vitamins and
minerals, disappeared without a bubble when the regulator
destroyed a vast mountain of natural supplements
at a secret location. |
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| TGA bias was particularly evident by the manner
in which the regulator conducted future recalls.
Interestingly, the regulator conducted a class 2
recall on VIOXX; a drug manufactured by drug giant
Merck — a drug which did cause
55,000 confirmed deaths and over 180,000 confirmed
injuries to Americans alone. A Class 2 recall meant
the TGA believed the "defects could cause illness… but
are not class one" That meant that the regulator
claimed the drug could not kill or disable anyone,
which was an obvious and self evident falsehood that
put the community at risk. (6) |
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| If Pan was shut down after nobody complained
about its supplement line or suffered a single problem,
then it would be reasonable for trans-national Merk
to be shut down for selling a drug that killed tens
of thousands of Americans alone. This has not been
the case and the TGA has not even conducted an investigation
into how many Australians or New Zealanders might
have been killed by the Drug Vioxx to which it issued
a licence. |
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| Within days of the raid the hapless Pan company
and its founder were embroiled in official red tape
and TGA forced Pan to close its doors permanently.
Shortly after the TGA raid, someone called in KPMG,
the liquidator, so fast, that the owner, Jim Selim
was removed from his own company with the velocity
of a speeding bullet and the manufacturing plant
and company was sold lock stock and barrel, in only
six months for a pittance, (a likely world record
for a liquidator). The Pan company that Mr. Selim
had built up over 20 years, worth over 500 million
dollars was sold for only 20 million within a few
months of the TGA raid.(10) Interestingly, KPMG
is a multinational power broker based in Switzerland
that deals in accounting, mergers, liquidation and
interestingly, also in chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
KPMG's specialty however, is offering financial
advice and other consultant "services" to
the pharmaceutical industry.(8) |
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| Over the ensuing 2 years the TGA has kept Mr.
Selim busy in a gruelling round of court battles
while the liquidator, KPMG continued to pick the
carcass clean. Recently, KPMG filed a statement of
claim against Mr. Selim for the amount of 300 million
over the collapse of Pan brought about by the TGA.(10) |
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| Since the Pan debacle, the beleaguered but apparently
spirited former owner of Pan intended to start another
business in Viet Nam as a manufacturer of health
products there but TGA and now ASIC (the Australian
company watchdog) is attempting to stop his manufacturing
licence in Viet Nam, alleging irregularities in
the paperwork. Interestingly, most of the big pharmaceutical
companies such as Novartis, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline
have now set up offices in Vietnam.(9,
10) |
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| TGA on Post Pan Rampage |
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| After the TGA disposed of Pan, it systematically
ran through other small Australian vitamin and supplement
manufacturers like a dose of Epsom salts in a frenzy
of "inspections" and "regulatory
activities". |
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| Small Australian-owned supplement manufacturers
allege TGA used a variety of intimidatory methods
against them including the halting of manufacturing
operations and near impossible requirements that
mainly cost over $500,000 to implement. NZ Health
Trust reports "recent reports out of Australia…include
comments such as compliance costs having increased
by 800% for one firm, another has had to spend an
extra $2 million in compliance costs, another still
faces a $1.86 million bill to upgrade their computer
systems as now required." TGA officials allegedly
demanded proprietors sign confidentiality agreements
and other agreements demanding that the proprietor
will not hold TGA liable for the loss of their business
after such "regulating activities".(11) Australian supplement companies remain silent after
TGA's "inspections". Many are bound
by agreements and none wanted their names revealed
for fear of a fresh round of "TGA regulatory
activities". Although a few are now considering
legal action regardless, an enquiry into TGA corruption
should get these witnesses testifying with considerable
help from a subpoena. |
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| The TGA had routinely inspected the Australian
supplement industry in the 2 years before it sent
Pan to the wall, and did not suspend a single manufacturer's
license. But after Pan, dozens of manufacturers were
driven out of business and over 12 Australian supplement
companies "voluntarily" turned in their
manufacturing licenses and went to the wall after
TGA scoured through their business again. (All the
manufacturers had already passed previous years' rigorous
TGA inspections.) (18, 11) Those who could afford
it just paid the money and did what was required
of them to stay in business for the time being. Other
manufacturers sold out for fire sale prices. Following
this obvious witch hunt, many natural product lines
remain out of stock in Australia and many nutritional
supplements have been permanently discontinued as
have the smaller Australian companies who made them. |
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| TGA and Drug Corporations
Set up Committee |
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In May 2003, only a month after TGA gutted Pan,
the regulator issued a public statement alleging
that "concerns" had been raised about
the quality of complementary medicines (supplements)
and indeed even the competency of complementary practitioners
(naturopaths). All this after:
1. the defective travel
sickness pill was a drug and not a supplement and
had been removed.
2. the company had been closed,
and dismantled,
3. none of the 1600 Pan dietary supplements
were found to have caused any problems, and
4. no
naturopath or alternative practitioner had killed
or harmed anyone with supplements.
(In the time it
takes to read this far another 4 Australians have
been killed or seriously injured by dangerous medical
procedures or pharmaceutical drugs licensed by the
TGA.) |
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| Ignoring all the evidence to the contrary, the
TGA stated on its website; "In May 2003, to
reassure the public and maintain confidence in Australia
's reputation as a supplier of high quality and safe
medicines, the Australian Government established
the Expert Committee on Complementary Medicines in
the Health System (the 'Expert Committee')" |
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| The TGA "expert" committee designated
to investigate supplements on behalf of the Australian
public, includes pharmaceutically orientated individuals
and several pharmaceutical front organsiations such
as the Self Medication Industry (ASMI) which represents
Bayer, Pfizer, Merck, Glaxo, Schering and Wyeth among
other trans-national pharmaceutical corporations.(12) Brazenly,
the expert committee also includes the Vice President
of manufacturing operations in the Asia Pacific Region
of Wyeth, a multinational that markets drugs, vaccines
and also nutrient supplements including raw ingredients
to supplements.(12) Incredibly,
Wyeth, was in direct competition to the products
and raw ingredients that Pan supplied in the Asia
Pacific region, just before TGA raided Pan. Wyeth
has a huge Asia Pacific base of operation and is
aggressively expanding its corporate territory.(16) Interestingly,
Wyeth's profits plunged a few months before the TGA
shut down Pan and the drug giant was only saved a
substantial loss that quarter by its small but profitable
range of vitamin products.(17,14,
15) |
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| The "expert" committee, stacked with
corporate representatives has been working on creating
more TGA legislation governing the control and regulations
of supplements. In a stunning display of corporate
governance over Australians, it has recently released
fifty more expert recommendations that have resulted
in 107 pages of proposed amendments to the TGA Act
which would increase the powers of the TGA to "regulate" even
more stringently. This would give TGA police powers
and the power to impose criminal charges and penalties
on Australian supplement manufacturers. All this
when there has never been a problem with supplements. |
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| Since late 2004, the TGA Amendment Bill of 2005
has been floated around the Australian Parliament.
This Bill proposes stiff criminal charges including
a half a million dollar fine against anyone who does
not report even a purported mild adverse reaction
to a natural remedy or a supplement. Since deaths
from supplements are virtually unheard of, it is
not difficult to imagine the official abuses, and
persecutions against natural practitioners and products
inherent in such legislation, when the pharmaceutical
industry death tolls remain unchecked. The only beneficiaries
of the proposed Bill appear to be the Pharmaceutical
corporations, probably a broad indication of the
identity of its originators. This Bill is intended
to bring about the death of the Australian owned
supplement industry and the takeover of the industry
by Pharmaceutical corporations. It is intended to
make it a criminal offence for anyone to order any
supplements from overseas. This Bill will further
connect Australia to the international regulatory
structures such as CODEX. |
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| The TGA Amendment Bill of 2005 has been thus
far difficult to source because it has been the apparent
intention of government to obscure this document
from public view as it is noted in prominent type
on front page the draft copy:"DRAFT
— IN CONFIDENCE This draft is supplied in confidence
and should be given appropriate protection." Protected
from whom? The Australian voters? There has been
no public debate about giving police powers to the
TGA and its pharmaceutical corporation allies. |
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| Fortunately all interested Australians can and
should now access this proposed bill on the website
listed below at reference nos. 41, 42. |
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| Considering the improper methods used
to originate and pass TGA legislation the Australian
Public should contact their Members of Parliament
and demand they say NO to passing the Therapeutic
Goods Amendment Bill of 2005. |
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PART 2 |
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| The Agenda |
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| Without Australians' knowledge or consent
the TGA gave multinational drug companies the power
to expand into and monopolise Australian markets
and shake out the Australian competition. This was
done under the guise of protecting the Australian
public health when there is nothing more than a trade
war going on. As in wars of any kind, people die
in trade wars too, and another Australian has died
as you read this because the TGA and its drug corporation
allies are busy suppressing and outlawing supplements.
This enables drug companies to destroy and take over
the supplement market while continuing to profit
from many particularly dangerous drugs that are known
to kill and disable humans. |
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| Remarkably, despite the shakeout, many small
fry companies did survive and while the pesky little
Aussie battlers were still taking a breath, the TGA
and its allies swung into action on an urgent agenda.
The years 2003 to 2004 were distinguished by unprecedented
changes to the structure of the regulator and the
rising dominance of the pharmaceutically based health
care industry. It was the beginning of both merging
offshore into a massively powerful corporate structure
— one that would whistle to the tune of CODEX. |
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For that to occur, the trans-national pharmaceutical
companies needed the following:
1. the world trade
organization (WTO) for gaining entry into domestic
markets and leveling the competition.
2. World health
organization (WHO) Codex committee that sets "standards" for
all supplements to be classed as drugs, which eventually
will only be allowed to be made synthetically by
drug companies in line with "international
standards" and not by local manufacturers using
inexpensive natural raw ingredients.
3. A corporately
structured regulator out of the Elector's reach
who would "regulate" wholly in the interests
of the drug companies.
4. An international treaty
(Joint trans-Tasman treaty) that would set the foundation
for the new international regulator over Australia
and New Zealand (the Trans Tasman joint Agency) that
would be run as a corporation in partnership with
trans-nationals and the TGA and be in the international
jurisdiction of CODEX.
5. An advertising agency that
would serve the new Trans-Tasman Joint Agency with
an advertising code that would "legalize" advertising
multinational's pharmaceutical drugs directly
to consumers, while at the same time preventing supplements
from being advertised. |
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| Part three will explore how this agenda was carried
out. |
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PART 3 |
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| The Treaty Not Many Knew
About |
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| In the months after the Pan debacle, persons
unknown to the Australian electorate drafted an international
treaty between Australia and New Zealand called "Agreement
Between the Government of Australia and the Government
of New Zealand for the Establishment of a Joint Scheme
for the Regulation of Therapeutic products", (known
as the JTA treaty for short). This treaty was signed
on December 10, 2003 by the health Ministers of both
countries without any public debate and without the
consent or consultation with Australian or New Zealand
Electors. The JTA treaty is intended to form the "legal" foundation
for a massive new regulatory agency. |
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| The JTA treaty is intended to come into
full effect on July 1, 2005 if Australians do not
stop this enactment process by telling their Parliamentary
representatives and the Australian Health Minister
that they are not to pass any enactment legislation
pertaining to this treaty. It appears highly questionable
that any legislation that is passed by stealth
has a legitimate force of law in a democracy, and
that legislation passed in this manner is a legal
nullity and subject to automatic repeal. |
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| The "Agency" Not Many Knew About |
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| The JTA treaty is intended to be the purported "legal" foundation
upon which a monstrously powerful "world class" regulatory "agency" has
been created. Known as the "Agency" or "the
Trans-Tasman Joint agency" it would do away
with the TGA as a statutory entity, which was at
least theoretically accountable to Australian Electors
and it would absorb Medsafe the New Zealand regulator
within its tangled corporate structure. With those
two entities nullified the newly born mammoth "Agency",
scheduled to come into effect on July 1, 2005 is
in fact structurally an off shore corporate business
set to be run by a chairman of the board, a managing
director, two persons with "regulating experience" and
a person with "broad experience in commercial
matters". This Agency creates a corporate partnership
between the regulator and the trans-national corporations,
which removes it a further step from the Australian
and New Zealand elector and into the direct jurisdiction
of the World Health Authority global regulator CODEX.(18) |
| |
| These drastic changes have been conducted in
such a secret manner that even Dr. Robyn Napier the
AMA representative said of it; "the process
has largely occurred without the knowledge of the
public." |
|
| |
| HARM-onizing Kiwi Cousins |
| |
| Trans-Tasman harmonizing means to force the Australian "regulatory
standards" onto New Zealand 's supplement
industry which up until recently enjoyed relative
prosperity and freedom. "Harmonization",
creates the same WTO global standards in each country
that are vital to the interests of trans-national
pharmaceutical corporations. |
| |
| For several years now it seemed as though Australia
had been the designated vitamin police in the South
Pacific region. However, immediately after Pan was
disposed of, extra plane loads of gray be-suited
men from the TGA were flown across the Tasman at
tax payer's expense to do to the KIWI(43) industry what TGA was doing to the Australian supplement
industry — making way for the big drug corporations.
Like a squad of mafia hit men, the TGA visited upon
New Zealand 's supplement industry its new "international
standards in regulatory excellence" and sent
their vitamin businesses to the wall as they "regulated" their
way through Kiwi companies. New Zealanders did not
appreciate Australian HARMonizing efforts, as their
many websites and activists indicate. Australians,
however, were not alerted by the mainstream media.
They remained largely unaware of the issue while
the TGA cooked up yet another scheme, the trans-Tasman
advertising agency. |
| |
| |
| The Trans-Tasman Advertising
Scheme Not Many Knew About |
| |
| In mid 2003 the Pan carcass was barely cold but
the TGA remained a hotbed of activity. With so much
big business coming together under the JTA treaty
and its "Trans-Tasman joint Agency",
TGA embarked on a new round of committees that ensured
the panopoly of corporations would have a collective
voice in the media to advertise their goods. New "standards" had
to be urgently drafted up by the TGA and its pharmaceutical
corporation partners that would come to be known
as the "Therapeutic Products Advertising Code". |
| |
| To many Australian electors it might still seem
unusual for its official regulator to collaborate
with media moguls and drug executives and create
an advertising agency, but that is what happened
in mid 2003, when one of the first of a series of
many consultation meetings took place with the "stakeholders".
The trans-Tasman advertising scheme had among its
attending delegates representatives from Unilever,
Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, ReckitBenckiser, Procter
and Gamble, and Roche.(19,
20) Later in the year
a similar meeting was convened at the Sydney Masonic
hall and attended by many delegates including from
Eli Lilly, News Ltd, Boots, various advertising agencies,
Faulding, Astra Zeneca, Baxter, Glaxo, Boehringer
Inngelheim, Fairfax, Merk, Novartis, Schering Plough,
Pfizer, Roche and of course who else but Wyeth. [Further
explanatory note in reference number.(21) |
|
| Dr. Robyn Napier of the AMA, normally an ultra
conservative organization, stated in her submission
to a Parliamentary committee on April 30, 2004:"the
process is occurring against a backdrop of enormous
pressure on a number of fronts, including: (pressure)
from pharmaceutical companies…to open up direct
consumer advertising. To down schedule medicines
to categories where direct consumer advertising is
possible."(24) (The
AMA was unhappy about this but did not cite patient
safety concerns such as the new advertising code
allowing a confused grandparent or a vulnerable teenager
to purchase prescription drugs directly from the
chemist.) |
| |
| It seemed the trans-national pharmaceutical corporations
were finally able to write their own advertising "code
of ethics" allowing them to advertise their
prescription drugs over the media. This necessitated
that prescription drugs would be down regulated to
become over the counter drugs. At the same time the
code was also drafted in such a way as to tighten
up regulations on supplement advertising making it
virtually impossible to even mention a positive health
effect from a vitamin in public. |
| |
| |
| The Front Organisations |
| |
| According to an inside industry source, the media
advertising of the therapeutic products advertising
code is managed by pharmaceutical front organizations
such as ASMI, the Australian chapter of the Self
Medication Industry which directly represents the
interests of over a dozen trans-national pharmaceutical
companies such as Pfizer, Merck, Roche, Glaxo and
Wyeth ( as well as a number of smaller companies). |
| |
| Some time ago I noticed that a world wide dietary
supplement trade organization called the Council
for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) seemed to pop up
regularly on Codex committees in Europe and it also
wafted around the Aussie TGA. The CRN has chapters
in most developed countries and takes a lead role
in advising governments on issues such as nutritional
supplements. It represents over 100 companies in
the "dietary supplement industry". |
| |
| On January 1, 1999 the CRN and another trade
organization merged to form the Complementary Health
Council of Australia CHC a "peak body" that
claims to "represent the complementary health
care industry in Australia ". Its executive
director was Val Johansen at the time who had headed
the TGA surveillance unit.(28) Now a consultant
to industry, she retired from CHC as from mid 2004.
Ms Johansen has been ever present in most TGA complementary
medicine's committees and is a member of the
Interim Advertising committee which has determined
the Trans-Tasman advertising schemes' advertising "code".
In an article published in the ACNEM Journal in 1999,
she claims that the new reforms the regulator has
brought in means "growth in the supplement
industry" and consumers having access to a
wider range of safe complementary health products,
as well as balanced and factual information." |
|
| The CNR's membership includes multinational
corporations such as: Eastman chemical company, BASF,
Bayer corporation, Monsanto and the ever present
Wyeth pharmaceutical company whose interests are
represented by the organisation.(26.27) It is not
known whether these corporations are currently members
of the CHC. |
| |
| |
| The CODEX They Tell You Isn't Real |
| |
| The public constantly sends me information asking
me to comment on it. Recently a flurry of official
information updates have landed on my desk from the
Complementary Healthcare Council (CHC). The updates
have been so widely disseminated to groups and individuals
that I thought there must be someone on round the
clock duty. Interestingly I have seen almost identical
information originating from trade and front organizations
in other countries. |
| |
| In essence, the official CHC "tech update" alleges:
CODEX is only about food and not about supplements.
The public is being ill informed about CODEX and
confused by persons on the internet with "alarmist
views" who "do not fully understand
how Codex works". It says the only Codex
representative Australia has
is from the fisheries department and he doesn't
make decisions about supplements, (only fish).
And no one in Australia is sitting
on any Codex committee doing anything to do with
vitamins and supplements. Only about food. Nothing
about supplements… (29) In
an extra warning in bold letters the CHC urges
all members to be cautious of CODEX information
from the internet and other forums, claiming it
may be "inaccurate", "alarmist" and "ill
informed". |
| |
| I read the two page "article" and
immediately suffered a bad case of deja`vue. It sounded
so much like Raymond Khoury's article I could
have sworn it was written by one and the same person
and merely recycled — possibly not surprising since
both Ms. Johanson and Mr. Khoury sit on the same
TGA committees. |
|
| |
| AUSSIES Deep in CODEX |
| |
| For many years now a few lucky Australians have
been sent on a yearly trip to participate in the
WHO CODEX committee in Europe. They are sent by
their government, which officially denies Codex exists
in the context of supplements. In November 2003 an
Australian delegation landed in Bonn, Germany.
The three day CODEX meeting was to be hosted by the
Federal Republic of Germany. |
| |
| Inside the stark German Government building the
25 th session was being convened of the "CODEX
COMMITTEE ON NUTRITION AND FOODS FOR SPECIAL DIETARY
USES" by the authoritarian President and Chairman
Herr Rolf Grossklaus. (There was no one from the
Aussie fisheries department present in the Australian
delegation.) The session was well attended by 225
delegates and advisors representing 48 member countries,
including Australia and representatives from 29 organisations
and trans-national corporations. |
| |
| Herr Toepner from the German Federal Ministry
opened the meeting with a short speech reminding
the delegates of the purpose of the Codex committee; "to
protect the health of consumers, to ensure 'fair
trade practices' and the committee's
important responsibilities under the WTO".
(WTO is the global trade police ensuring trade barriers
fall and local competition is leveled so that global
corporations can take over national markets, in the
name of "world class regulatory standards" and "fair
trade practices".) |
| |
| Herr Toepner apparently stressed the same message
given to the delegates at TGA/FSANZ head quarters,
for they made an heroic effort to further the agenda
of supplement restriction at the CODEX meeting. The
CODEX committee Chairman was well pleased with their
work. The funereal looking Herr Grossklaus gratefully
accepted the Australian proposal to apply a "risk" analysis
to nutritional supplements. The committee once again
expressed its appreciation to the; "Delegation
of Australia for its work in this important area
and agreed that a 'risk-based approach' should
be followed for the establishment of upper limits
for nutrients," as stated the 2003 CODEX minutes
report. That meant the Committee was currently working
on placing a restriction on world wide supplement
consumers. The Australian delegation agreed with
the Chairman that the next 2004 Codex "session
should be kept informed of the progress achieved
by WHO in order to facilitate its further work on
vitamins and minerals." (Author's translation
of meaning of this is in footnote 33) |
|
| Moreover, the CODEX observer from the Council
for Responsible Nutrition agreed wholeheartedly — probably much to the approval of its members Bayer,
BASF, Monsanto and of course, Wyeth. (The Australian
chapter of the CRN merged with Ms Johansen's
CHC in 1999) |
| |
| Among the CODEX participants that year, there
were at least eleven multinational food and pharmaceutical
companies including of course, Nestle and Roche.
However, three delegations alone were from Wyeth. |
| |
| The 2003 CODEX must have been considered such
a success that the Australian delegate, Ms. Janine
Lewis, Principal nutritionist, returned with another
delegate the following year, Ms. Jane Allen, Senior
nutritionist. Both are employees of the Food standards
Australia and New Zealand FSANZ, a TGA related department
which has joint committees with the TGA. The two
departments share personnel, resources and curiously
similar agendas. Interestingly, Val Johanson, formerly
of CHC states in her bio that she; "held positions
in the Australian Public Service as head
of food standards at Federal level and she
also established the Therapeutic Goods Administration's
surveillance unit, which she headed for almost four
years. Positions currently held include; member of
the Complementary Medicines Evaluation Committee,
Chair of the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code Council,
Head of the International Herbal Regulatory Task
Force of the International Alliance of Dietary Supplement
Associations". |
| |
| There is much confusion deliberately generated
by the regulator and its corporate partners to obscure
the real agendas. Is Australia 's participation
in CODEX about food or supplements? (therapeutic
goods). The answer is both. This is what a law link
had to say about the legal interface between foods
and supplements after the changes to the Therapeutic
Goods Act that was rammed through after Pan. "Food
can now be a therapeutic good. The TGA is
now able to designate food items as therapeutic goods.
Previously, prescribed foods were not classified
as therapeutic goods. Now, where a food product prescribed
under the Australia and New Zealand Food Standards
Code is designated by TGA as having therapeutic properties,
the TGA may declare the product to be a therapeutic
good, and therefore as subject to regulation under
the Act."(30) That includes vitamins and supplements
which the TGA Act regards as medicines and drugs
under the title of therapeutic goods. |
|
| The TGA has this to say about food being classed
as medicine; "products which may fit within
the definition of either a food or a medicine [supplements]
are referred to a joint TGA/FOOD STANDARDS Australia New
Zealand (FSANZ) committee which
recommends whether the goods should be regulated
as a therapeutic good or as food. This means
TGA/FSANZ sends delegates to CODEX to get their orders
about supplement regulations from overseas. |
| |
| |
| Conclusion |
| |
| There is no more point to denying it. Australia
is participating in CODEX. But that is not all that
has occurred. Starting with Pan in 2003 the TGA and
its trans-national pharmaceutical corporation allies
waged a hostile take over of the Australian supplement
industry. Later that year the Australian government
signed a treaty that enabled the TGA and the pharmaceutical
corporations to form what amounts to an offshore
corporation. This would keep the voters at arms' length
and put the monstrous new "Agency" into
the direct international jurisdiction
of the WHO/WTO and CODEX. As a final blow Australian
voters were not even privy to a new TGA amendment
bill 2005 about to be tabled that caters to the needs
of the drug corporations. All this because a trade
war is raging. Bad news about drug deaths is getting
out. Drug companies need to take over supplement
market to offset their financial losses. The cost
of this desperate corporate last stand is Democracy
and Health Freedom. Why consent to that? When you
can do something about it. |
| |
Australians and New Zealanders who value their
lives, health and freedom can join into Eve Hillary's
Health Freedom — CODEX campaign and choose
an option from the two pages of easy health freedom
suggested initiatives. OR they can create their own
initiatives. Everybody can do something to restore
Health and Freedom for all. See you in the winner's
circle. www.evehillary.org  |
| |
| |
| Copyright © 2005 Eve
Hillary |
| |
|
| References and Endnotes |
| |
| (1) |
"Health
horror revealed" by Samantha Maiden published
in the Hobart Mercury 31
July 2001
Wilson RM,
Runciman WB, Gibberd RW, et al. The Quality
in Australian Health Care Study. Med J Aust
1995; 163: 458-471. |
| (2) |
O'Hara D, Carson NJ. Reporting
of adverse events in hospitals in Victoria 1994-1995.
Med J Aust 1997; 166: 460-463. |
| (3) |
National Expert Advisory
Group on Safety and Quality in Australian Health
Care. Interim report — Commitment to quality
enhancement. July 1998. |
| (4) |
This figure is based
on analysis of data from the Nutritional Institute
of America (NIA)…assessing 2001 data showed
that iatrogenic (caused by doctors and drugs)
disease caused 783,936 deaths in contrast with
699,697 deaths from heart disease and 553,251
from cancer. The NIA report– "Death
by Medicine," authored by Gary Null, Ph.D.,
Martin Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MS and
Dorothy Smith, Ph.D. — followed a US Agency
for Healthcare Research study published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). |
| (5) |
Pan-WHO
was Behind the Biggest Vitamin Recall in History?
A three Part Feature Article on who was behind
the world's largest recall.
Filed May 12, 2003 By Eve Hillary www.evehillary.org |
| (6) |
http://www.tga.gov.au/recalls/2004/vioxx.htm |
| (7) |
http://www.4-men.org/mens-health/vioxx-recall.html Dr.
Graham also told the Senate Finance Committee that
Vioxx may have caused 55,000 deaths alone, more
than the 28,000 projected by the FDA. Graham also
indicated Vioxx may have caused as many as 160,000
heart attacks, strokes and deaths, combined. |
| (8) |
Internet website KPMG
Graduate Recruitment
KPMG. AUDIT. TAX. ADVISORY. bright minds… company
specialising in sales of foods and pharmaceutical products that has branches
through the country….
www.
kpmgcareers.co.uk/GraduateRecruitment/ WhatWeExpect/TestYourself/business_challenge.cfm — 34k |
| (9) |
OTC
Healthcare in Vietnam…
Most of the leading international pharmaceutical
companies such as Novartis, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline
have set up representative offices in Vietnam…
www.euromonitor.com/OTC_Healthcare_in_Viet nam — 32k |
| (10) |
"Pan Boss
on Notice" by Jennifer Sexton March
18, 2005 The Australian Newspaper |
| (11) |
This author interviewed
several manufacturers, none of whom have given
permission to use their names for fear of further
problems with the TGA |
| (12) |
http://www.tga.gov.au/docs/html/cmreport.htm |
| (13) |
"Corporate Casualties" an
article by Eve Hillary www.evehillary.org |
| (14) |
http://www.biopharmalink.com/companies/1224.htm Wyeth |
| (15) |
http://www.devicelink.com/expo/nu04/exhibitinfo.html |
| (16) |
http://investintaiwan.nat.gov.tw/en/opp/cases/wyeth.html |
| (17) |
http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/news/news-ng.asp?id=24522-vitamins-buoy-wyeth |
| (18) |
From Senate documents: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:
Tw0OYiAk9XcJ:www.aph.gov.au/Senate/ committee/clac_ctte/estimates/bud_0304/
vol6doha_feb04.pdf++Mr.ross-johnston+ vice+president++manufacturing+operations
+asia+pacific,+wyeth&hl=en |
| (19) |
As stated in the JTA
treaty page 8. http://www.jtaproject.com/Downloads/
Key%20Documents/TreatyText.pdf |
| (20) |
http://www.tga.health.gov.au/tta/advtt.htm |
| (21) |
The stakeholders meeting was
understandably frequented by industry, however,
meanwhile the main Advertising Council Committee
at the TGA headquarters was infiltrated by the
drug industry front organization representing the
interests of the multinational industry including
ASMI, SMI, the Researched Medicines Industry, Medicines
Australia and. These organizations represent the
interests of dozens of multinational drug companies.
See link http://www.jtaproject.com/Downloads/ Hot%20Topics/IACMeetNov03.pdf |
| (22) |
http://www.taxtyranny.ca/images/HTML/
Codex/Codex/Codex-15.html |
| (23) |
List of attendees
at the Interim Advertising Council Consultation
Meeting Hosted by TGA on July
1, 2003. |
| (24) |
AMA public submission
document to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties
inquiry into the Agreement between Australia
and New Zealand for the establishment
of a Joint Scheme for the regulation of therapeutic
products. 30 th April, 2004,
by Dr. Robyn Napier, Representative of the AMA
on Trans Tasman interim advertising council. |
| (25) |
http://www.codexalimentarius.net/
download/report/251/al03_26e.pdf |
| (26) |
http://proliberty.com/observer/20040111.htm re
CRN |
| (27) |
http://www.crnusa.org/who_omc.html#other |
| (28) |
http://norsearch.scu.edu.au/conferences/
nat_safe/conf_speakers.html |
| (29) |
Tech Update from CHC
entitled CODEX, the Facts without fiction, signed
off by Alan Crosthwaite, Technical director CHC. |
| (30) |
http://www.findlaw.com.au/articles/default.asp
?task=read&id=9120&site=GN |
| (31) |
www.nzht.co.nz New
Zealand health Trust |
| (32) |
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/index.htm Sep
Hasslberger |
| (33) |
(Author's Translation:
under that proposed further work on vitamins,
a person couldn't make a carrot juice or
squeeze an orange juice without being likely
to exceed CODEX guidelines for vitamins. This
is done so anything exceeding the Committee's
low recommended daily intake can be classed as
a drug and sold for a huge profit margin in a
synthetic form rather than to allow cheap naturally
derived supplements made by local manufacturers
to be freely available. In Germany where
CODEX guidelines are already in place drug companies
now exclusively provide miniscule doses of vitamin
preparations that must be dispensed by a chemist
and are sold for exorbitant prices. Naturopaths
and wholistic doctors have been prescribing therapeutic
doses and even mega doses of vitamins for over
a hundred years with excellent effect. If CODEX
recommendations are adopted, the speciallty of
wholistic health and wholistic medicine may be
lost or disregarded for the sake of drug company
profits.) |
| (34) |
Codex refers to the
Codex Alimentarius Commission, a branch of the
World Health Organisation which oversees A CODEX COMMITTEE ON NUTRITION
AND FOODS FOR SPECIAL DIETARY USES. This committee
meets annually. Hundreds of delegates attend
ranging from representatives from 48 member countries
to representatives of giant food and pharmaceutical
corporations. Dr. Wong Peng, Director of The
Humanitarian Project — Health For All, in Malasia
was present at the 2003 Codex committee held
in Bonn Germany.
In a summary of that meeting Dr. Peng writes: "Driven
by the interest of their multinational corporations,
particularly from the pharmaceutical and food
manufacturing industries, the EU put forward
suggestions that will eventually protect the
interest of these industries." This Codex
committee purports to decide whether or not consumers
in the world can have vitamins, minerals and
other essential nutrients and how much they can
have, and if so, who will provide them. |
| (35) |
When I refer to
nutritional supplements and essential nutrients
I refer primarily to all the essential nutrients
including minerals, vitamins, amino acids,
and omega oils that are essential to sustaining
a physical human body on a daily basis, without
which there would be no health, healing or
life. These are not drugs. They are the nutrients
everyone must ingest daily to sustain physical
health and maintain life in a physical body.
These essentials have been found abundantly
in food in the past. However, "modern" agriculture
under the influence of multinational chemical
companies has been responsible for the depletion
of soils from which poor quality foods are
grown that are depleted of essential nutrients.
To retain their health many people have resorted
to taking nutritional supplementation of essential
nutrients. In many countries these supplements
are now regulated as drugs due to the Codex
influence upon the regulators. Essential nutrients
are not drugs. They are as essential to life
as is oxygen or water. Any excess nutrients
are excreted just like oxygen or water. Author's note; The proposed Codex restriction on nutrients
is dangerous and arguably genocidal. It is the
same as if a corporation were to deplete the earth's
atmosphere of oxygen and then monopolise and regulate
people's supply and intake of "supplemental" oxygen,
calling oxygen a "drug" that can only
be purchased at an exorbitant price from the corporation
that caused the problem in the first place. There
is no difference. |
| (36) |
Hundreds of studies
are listed in the following tests by Dr. M. Wehrbach
including: "Textbook of Nutritional Medicine" by
Melvyn. R. Wehrbach MD, assistant clinical Professor
School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. Third
Line Press 1999 |
| (37) |
"Foundations
of Nutritional Medicine" byMelvyn.
R. Wehrbach MD, assistant clinical Professor
School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. Third
Line Press 1999 |
| (38) |
"Nutritional
Influences on Illness" Melvyn. R. Wehrbach
MD, assistant clinical Professor School of Medicine,
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. Third Line Press 1999 |
| (39) |
"Nutritional
Influences on Mental Illness" Melvyn. R.
Wehrbach MD, assistant clinical Professor School
of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. Third Line
Press 1999 |
| (40) |
"Healing Through
Nutrition, a natural approach to Treating 50
common illnesses with diet and Nutrients" Melvyn.
R. Wehrbach MD, assistant clinical Professor
School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. |
| (41) |
http://www.nzhealthtrust.co.nz/documents.html |
| (42) |
http://www.nzhealthtrust.co.nz/pdf/
Therapeutic_Goods_Amendment_Bill_2005.pdf |
| (43) |
Kiwi is the name of
a flightless bird found in New
Zealand, also a slang word
meaning New Zealand or
New Zealander. |
|
|
| Additional Resources and Information |
| |
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