50 years ago

HAMILTON could become the base for a drug monitoring program which would be of national and international importance. Representatives of the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee, Dr. Ralph Farnbach and Mr. Ron Sullivan, arrived in Hamilton this week to conduct a feasibility study into the proposal. The program, if implemented, would monitor the side effects of prescribed drug usage, and would be the first of its kind in the world. The Australian Drug Evaluation Committee was set up to advise the Minister of Health. One of its sub-committees is concerned with actions to prescribed drugs, as distinct from drug abuse. Dr Farnbach said yesterday the committee had proposed a survey to monitor drug side effects in a community in an attempt to gain more meaningful information on the subject.