Thank you for your e-mail enquiring about ordering piracetam, hydergine,vasopressin, melatonin, 5-hydroxytryptophan and 2-dimethylaminoethanol from an overseas internet site. I am the Information Officer from the Drug Safety and Evaluation Branch of the Therapeutic Goods Administration. The Drug Safety and
Evaluation branch is responsible for prescription medicines. In response to your enquiry, I offer you the following information.
Australian residents and visitors to Australia can legally import certain therapeutic goods for personal use under the personal import exemption. This exemption does not allow the personal importation of either substances or drugs
prohibited by Customs legislation, or, injectable drugs that contain material of human or animal origin (except insulin), unless an import permit has been obtained.
The ingredients listed in the medicines that you intend to order do not appear in the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956 and so will not require an import permit. Please note that it is illegal to supply goods imported under the personal import exemption to persons outside the importer's immediate family.
Under the personal import exemption, you may import three months supply per import and, no more than fifteen months supply pertwelve-month period.
It is important to note that such medicines may not be approved for supply in Australia, this means there are no guarantees about their safety, efficacy or quality.
Please also note that, as stated in the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Drugs and Poisons, all of these substances requires a prescription in Australia. The Australian Customs Service may request proof that a prescription has been written by an Australian-registered medical doctor.
You will also need to contact the following Australian government departments to make sure that they do not place restrictions on the importation of these products or ingredients in these products:
Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service:
http://www.affa.gov.au/outputs/quarantine.html
Environment Australia:
http://www.biodiversity.environment.gov.au/plants/wildlife/intro.htm
If you require further information on this subject, may I direct you to our website. There is a TGA publication on personal importation which can be found at the following link:
http://www.health.gov.au/tga/docs/html/personalimp.htm
Otherwise, please contact me at this email or by telephone on (02) XXX-XXXX.
I trust this information is of assistance to you.
Yours sincerely
XXXXX XXXXXXX
Pharmacist
Experimental Drugs Section
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Hi, if your still here, I hope this was of some use to you people out there!
Krill
[ 10 February 2002: Message edited by: krillsta ]
As ruski said, it does pay to ask for things nicely...
