Medicines Act 1981

Dealings with medicines and medical devices - Exemptions

32A: Exemptions in respect of importation by the Crown

You could also call this:

"When the Government imports medicine, it doesn't have to follow all the usual rules."

If you work for the Crown, you can import medicine into New Zealand. You can sell the medicine or give it away. You do not have to follow the rules in the Medicines Act 1981 when you do this. You still have to follow some rules, like sections 20, 44, and 45. If you sell the medicine, you have to pay a fee, as stated in Section 50(2). If someone has a licence to sell the medicine, they can sell it or give it away. This includes pharmacists in hospitals and other pharmacies, as stated in section 24. When the Crown imports medicine, it can also do things with the packaging and advertising. The term sell includes giving away or lending the medicine, as defined in section 2.

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This page was last updated on 27 October 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM55435.

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32: Exemptions for natural therapists and others, or

"Some people can make and sell certain medicines without following all the rules."

33: Exemptions in respect of procuring and exporting medicines, or

"When you can get or send medicines without breaking the law"

Part 2Dealings with medicines and medical devices
Exemptions

32AExemptions in respect of importation by the Crown

Notwithstanding anything in this Act, but subject to subsection (2), the Crown may, in respect of any medicine approved by the Director-General for the purposes of this section,—
import the medicine into New Zealand; and
sell the medicine, or distribute it by way of gift or loan or sample or in any other way, or advertise it for sale, or advertise the availability of it—

Nothing in subsection (1) limits or affects the application to the Crown of sections 20, 44, and 45.
Section 50(2), to the extent that it relates to the payment of a fee on the application for a licence to sell a medicine by wholesale, applies to the Crown in the same way as it applies to other persons in any case where the Crown would, but for subsection (1), be required to obtain a licence to sell a medicine imported by the Crown under subsection (1) by wholesale.
Nothing in section 24 prevents a person who holds a licence to sell a medicine imported by the Crown under subsection (1) by wholesale from selling the medicine, or supplying it by way of gift or loan or sample or in any other way.
Nothing in section 24 prevents—
a pharmacist employed in a hospital in the course of that pharmacist's employment as a pharmacist in that hospital, selling a medicine imported by the Crown under subsection (1) or supplying it by way of gift or loan or sample or in any other way:
any other pharmacist, in any pharmacy, selling a medicine imported by the Crown under subsection (1), or supplying it by way of gift or loan or sample or in any other way.

Repealed
The powers conferred by this section to do anything in respect of a medicine include the power to do likewise in respect of any advertising material, container, label, labelling material, or package (as those terms are defined in section 2), or a data sheet or other written or printed material, relating to that medicine.
In this section the term sell includes the matters specified in paragraphs (a) to (c) of the definition of that term in section 2.

Notes

Section 32A: substituted, on 1 August 1990, by section 2(1) of the Medicines Amendment Act 1990 (1990 No 69).
Section 32A(6): repealed, on 26 November 2018, by section 459 of the Social Security Act 2018 (2018 No 32).