APVMA made advances in improving application assessment times

Since the introduction of new legislative reforms in 2014, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) has continued to make steady progress in improving application assessment times, according to APVMA's 2015-16 Annual Report. An audit undertaken this year shows that the average time taken to register a product is now shorter than under the previous legislation. 

 

Final quarter 2015–16 results showed an overall improvement in timeframe performance and the numbers of applications being finalised. The APVMA invested effort in clearing overdue applications, particularly those transitioned from the previous legislation, to ensure its performance against timeframes for finalising applications can improve over time. 

 

In 2015–16, the APVMA commenced assessment of 5106 applications covering: pre-application assistance; pesticide and veterinary medicine products; active constituents; permits; nominated agents and changes to holders (Items 8L, 8M and 8P); technical assessments under Item 25; notifiable variations; import consents; and certificates of exports. 

 

 

 

The APVMA commenced assessment of 2510 applications for products, actives and permits and finalised 2545 applications between July 2015 and June 2016. Of the 2545 product, active and permit applications finalised, approximately 90.5 per cent were granted, with around 2.8 per cent refused by the APVMA and 6.7 per cent of applications withdrawn by the applicants. 
 

The timeframe performance for applications finalised was 68 per cent within timeframe for the year. 
 

Total product application timeframe performance was 66 per cent: pesticides 57 per cent, veterinary medicines 80 per cent, and 70 per cent of applications for actives and permits were completed within timeframe. 
 

There was a significant improvement in timeframe performance for product applications over the last quarter (April–June) of 2015–16 reaching 78 per cent completed within timeframe. 

 

 

 

The overall timeframe performance for the year was negatively affected by higher than expected unplanned staff leave in the September quarter, which caused backlogs for subsequent quarters. However, performance improved significantly towards the end of the year as a result of: the recruitment of staff to the registration management and evaluation program; new capacity and improvements to internal applications management software that reduced administrative burden on APVMA staff; improvements to work processes. 

 

 

APVMA’s total income for this financial year was Aus$ 30.546 million, an increase of Aus$0.805 million (2.71 per cent) from the previous year.