MATTHEW DORAN, HOST: Mark Butler, welcome back to Afternoon Briefing. We're now around ten days into this new anti-vaping regime across the country. What are you hearing on the ground about how that is being received? And indeed, are we seeing vaping stores closing their doors?
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: We're receiving direct communication from vape store owners that they're winding up their lease and they're closing their doors. We've also received direct communication from broader convenience stores that stock obviously a range of different products that they are taking vapes off their shelves as well. In addition, our authority, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the TGA, has already started visiting stores in concert with New South Wales authorities. I think they've visited several dozen stores over the first week of the new ban, and we’ll be ramping up that activity over coming days and coming weeks with other states as well.
DORAN: Are you concerned at all about whether or not there could be some vaping stores that continue trying to operate under the radar?
BUTLER: I'd be surprised if there wasn't the odd bad apple that continued to try to operate, which is why I've tried to be very clear with my message that we are deadly serious about enforcing this ban. The legislation we passed in the Parliament has very serious penalties for non-compliance, fines of up to $2.2 million and prison time of up to seven years for non-compliance. And we will be very serious about enforcing those provisions of the Act. But obviously we're going to give some days, some weeks to go out there and if vape stores or convenient stores for some reason haven't heard about this new ban, we’ll inform them of the ban and make sure that it is put into place. As well Matt, can I say that even before the new laws came to effect on the 1st of July, we were hearing reports that vape stores and convenience stores were starting to have difficulty getting supply because the import ban that we put in place on the 1st of January did start to choke off the supply of vapes from overseas. We've seized more than 3 million vapes, for example, on the border, taking them out of the hands of our kids.
DORAN: I'm curious with those seizures, and I know that you've done a number of media appearances where you've stood alongside crates full of them. Are we seeing the numbers of those seizures go down as a result of the import ban?
BUTLER: I haven't received a report for a couple of weeks, but actually over time we were finding our intelligence gathering about crates of vapes coming in was actually improving. The ABF, the Border Force's ability to detect them at the border, whether that's on planes or in shipping crates, was improving. We’re continuing to detect this, but we’ve also received reports from overseas that the vaping industry has recognised that it is much more difficult to get imports into Australia now. And so many companies have, frankly, just stopped exporting them to Australia and are seeking alternative markets, which from my perspective is a good thing for Australian kids.
DORAN: The new proposal or not proposal, the new rules mean that people can only buy vapes through pharmacies. It won't come as any surprise to you to know, Mark Butler, that a number of pharmacists are still pretty grumpy about being brought into this new regime. How are you going to be managing those concerns in the weeks and months to come?
BUTLER: Just to emphasise, first of all, it's not a new regime. The smoking cessation product of vapes has been one that doctors have been prescribing for some time, available through pharmacies. Pharmacies have been working for years with their patients and customers on a range of smoking cessation products, whether that's nicotine replacement therapies in gum form, patch form or indeed, e-cigarettes that's not a new thing. But also, look, pharmacy businesses make their own decisions about what services they offer their patients. There are many, hundreds or if not thousands of pharmacies, for example, that choose not to offer immunisation programs in spite of the fact that they are now able to do so supported by Commonwealth payments. They also might choose not to offer opioid dependence treatment, which is something some pharmacies do and some don't. I'm not surprised that there's a mix of view views within the pharmacy sector. But I do push back on the idea that this is new, and this has been something that many pharmacies have been offering their patients for a long period of time.
DORAN: I noticed, Minister, with some curiosity this morning, some reporting around concerns that exist with some doctors, that people who have medicinal cannabis prescriptions may suffer as a result of the vaping ban, because they won’t be able to find vaporiser devices to take that medicinal cannabis. Is that a concern that’s ever been raised with you?
BUTLER: No, I’m a bit surprised by these reports that medicinal cannabis should only ever be supplied on prescription by a doctor through a pharmacy. There are clear arrangements in place, they’ve been in place for a number of years now. Some hundreds of thousands of Australians are accessing medicinal cannabis products that way through a prescription from their doctor under a scheme that’s operated by the TGA, the Therapeutic Goods Administration. It was some surprise to me that there would be a doctor expecting that product would be available through a vaping store.
DORAN: I want to turn to an announcement you made yesterday, and that is about opening up access, free access to families who desperately need it to a special drug looking at a very rare form of cancer known as neuroblastoma. This drug, DFMO incredibly expensive to access overseas and now will be made available in hospitals. It must be pretty nice as a minister to make an announcement like that where everyone’s cheering it on.
BUTLER: This is something that these families have been advocating and struggling for really for some time. And it’s been really hard work between the Government, the drug company Norgine, who’s produced this new cutting-edge treatment, and those families. About 20 kids every year are diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma. They undergo really rigorous treatment, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, often surgery. After all of that treatment is completed, there’s a very serious risk of relapse of the cancer coming back and if the cancer comes back, the survival rate for these kids who are overwhelmingly under the age of ten, sometimes under the age of five, can be as low as 5 per cent. This new drug, which is a tablet form drug, really cuts that risk of relapse. It improves the survivability of these children to be able to go on and live long, healthy, happy lives and enjoy the rest of their childhood with their mums and dads and brothers and sisters. This is a very significant new treatment. It’s going through the process of approval here in Australia, but that’s going to take time. What we did was work with those families and particularly with the drug company, to put in place a bridging program that would ensure that those kids who’ve undergone all that chemo and surgery right now can access the treatment here, now in Australia, rather than having to travel to America, pay as much as $500,000 for those tablets.
DORAN: It’s an incredible financial burden that these families have had to shoulder up until now. I’m curious how much this program is going to cost the Commonwealth to provide this free access, and indeed when that access will be available?
BUTLER: The access is available from yesterday when I announced it. So, the tablets will be available very, very shortly. I've been communicating with the global CEO of this drug company, Norgine, since April, to request that they make this drug physically available in Australia. I've indicated to state governments, we've been in communication with them for some days that if they provide that treatment to children in their children's hospitals that we would pay for the cost of the drug treatment from yesterday. We expect this program will have to be in place maybe through to the end of next year, and it may well support as many as 20 children, so you can work the maths out for yourselves that it's somewhere in the order of $10 to $20 million cost by taxpayers. But as I say, this is a real life changer and probably a life saver for many of these kids whom we hope will go on then to live long, healthy, happy lives contributing to this country.
DORAN: I don't think you'll find many people who'll say it's not a worthy investment. Mark Butler, thanks for joining us today.
BUTLER: Thanks, Matt
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