Department of Health v Multichem Laboratories Ltd - [1987] 1 NZLR 334

Criminal law — Defences — Strict liability — Sale of new medicine to Hospital Board before consent of Minister of Health gazetted — Onus on defendant to prove it had not intended to commit an offence and had taken all reasonable steps to ensure it was not committing an offence — Defendant had taken no positive step of inquiring whether consent had been given to the sale — Whether defendant must have taken some step before it could claim that it had taken all reasonable steps — Medicines Act 1981, s 80(2)(b).