Until recently, New Zealand had one of the worst data protection regimes for animal medicines in the developed world. This all changed in November 2016, when the parliament passed a major law change to extend data protection. The law change was a significant win for animal medicine and crop protection manufacturers, says Mark Ross, Chief Executive of Agcarm. At first the government was not interested in extending data protection – reasoning that it would be anti-competitive to generic-based companies, and would lead to product price increases for farmers; other drivers included agriculture’s critical role to New Zealand’s economy, and the need to incentivise less hazardous products and provide new and innovative products.