Advisory Committee on Medicines Scheduling (ACMS)

Role of the ACMS

The ACMS was established to advise and make recommendations to the Secretary of the Department of Health (or delegate) on the level of access required for medicines and in some instances chemicals.

Under revised scheduling arrangements, which took effect on 1 July 2010, the Secretary to the Department of Health (Health) (or the Secretary's delegate) superseded the National Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee (NDPSC) as the decision maker for the scheduling of medicines and chemicals.

Scheduling is a classification system that controls how medicines and chemicals are made accessible to consumers based on the substances contained within them. Substances are grouped into Schedules according to the appropriate level of regulatory control over their availability (e.g. Schedule 4 - medicines available only by prescription; Schedule 2 - medicines available over the counter in pharmacies).

Committee membership

The current membership of the committee can be found on our ACMS members page.

Proposed meeting dates and decisions timeframes

Stakeholders should note that the timetable outlines the anticipated administrative timeframes associated with matters seen by the advisory committee. This timetable also reflects public consultation timeframes as required by legislation.

• Scheduling committees meeting dates and decisions timetable

Joint meetings

The Secretary of the Department of Health (or delegate) may refer an application or proposal to amend the Poisons Standard to the ACMS, the Advisory Committee on Chemicals Scheduling (ACCS) or to a joint sitting both of committees.

Where matters of interest to both committees are identified, including any proposals that relate to substances that may have a human therapeutic use (including as an excipient) as well as a non-human therapeutic use, the proposals may be referred to a joint meeting to the ACMS and ACCS.

Details outlining the procedures for joint meetings are in Division 3C of Part 6 of the Therapeutic Goods Regulations 1990. A recommendation arising from a joint meeting is a recommendation to the Secretary from each advisory committee.

For details go to Joint ACMS-ACCS meetings.

Delegate-only decisions

From time to time the delegate may make a scheduling decision without referring the change to the committee for advice.

The delegate-only scheduling decisions are available at Scheduling decisions (final).

Contact details for the ACMS