The morning sickness drug Softenon,which contained thalidomide.

The morning sickness drug Softenon,which contained thalidomide.

The Minister for Customs,Senator N. H. D. Henty,said that thalidomide was known under several trade names,including Distaval.

He had banned imports on advice from the federal Minister for Health,Senator H. W. Wade,that use of the drug was definite menace to public health.

“Mark Chorlton,4,of Mount Kuringai,at Taronga Park Zoo at the weekend. January 1,1965.”

“Mark Chorlton,4,of Mount Kuringai,at Taronga Park Zoo at the weekend. January 1,1965.”Credit:Frederick Thomas Murray

Senator Wade tonight appealed to State Government to waste no time in enacting uniform laws on drugs and poisons.

Senator Wade said that the National Health and Medical Research Council,on which every State was represented by its chief Health officer,in 1959 adopted a draft for uniform poisons legislation.

The council had consistently advocated that every new drug should be listed initially as “For use on doctor’s prescription only.”

New drugs could then be transferred to a less restricted list later,when the appropriate expert committee had established whether any appreciable health risk was involved.

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Queensland had based its drugs legislation on this principle for many years,with most satisfactory results.

Senator Wade said New South Wales,Victoria and South Australia would soon adopt a similar principle.

The same principle was incorporated in new drugs legislation being prepared for the A.C.T.

Every State already had full constitutional power to prohibit or restrict the sale of any preparation within its own borders.

Uniform protective laws would enable the States,in concert with the Commonwealth,to ensure that no new drug was offered for general use until clinical trials either in Australia or overseas established its safety as far as was humanly possible.

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Senator Wade said he questioned whether any instrumentality such as a Drug Bureau could alone afford the public the same degree of protection as would be given by a blanket legislative limitation on new drugs,accompanied by clinical trials in teaching hospitals.

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