Herbal medicines will survive after ministers approve plan that bypasses EU directive
By Jenny Hope
Last updated at 2:06 AM on 17th February 2011Herbal and Chinese medicines that faced an EU ban are to stay on sale under plans to register UK practitioners for the first time.
The Government moved yesterday to protect consumers wanting herbal products that will disappear from many health food shops after April 30.
The Government wants to ensure continuing access to unlicensed manufactured herbal medicines via a statutory register
Mr Lansley has approved a plan for the Health Professions Council to establish a register of practitioners supplying unlicensed herbal medicines, who will be required to sign up by law.
But from May 1 consumers will be unable personally to buy many traditional herbal products under an EU directive passed in 2004, taking effect this year. Only those which have been licensed in a process costing £80,000 to £120,000 will remain on sale.
At least 50 herbs, including horny goat weed (so-called natural Viagra), hawthorn berry, used for angina pain, and wild yam will no longer be stocked in health food shops, says the British Herbal Medicine Association.
The EU directive demands that a traditional herbal medicinal product must be shown to have been in use for 30 years in the EU – or at 15 years in the EU and 15 years elsewhere – for it to be licensed.
The UK drug safety watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Agency, has issued more than a dozen alerts in the past two years, including a warning last month over a contaminated weight loss pill called Herbal Flos Lonicerae (Herbal Xenicol) due to concerns over possible side-effects.
Mr Lansley, in a written statement, said the Government wanted to ensure continuing access to unlicensed herbal medicines via a statutory register for practitioners ‘to meet individual patient needs’.
All UK health departments will consult on the legislation, and the aim is to have it in place in 2012.
Acupuncture falls outside the EU directive and so remains unaffected.
Prince Charles, a long-standing supporter of complementary therapies, has voiced his support for formal regulation of herbal practitioners.
Michael McIntyre, chairman of the The European Herbal and Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association, said: ‘The Government is to be congratulated on making the right decision to bring in statutory regulation for all those prescribing herbal medicines.
‘Ministers have clearly recognised that this legislation is for patients’ benefit and we look forward to working with the Department of Health and Health Professions Council to implement this as soon as possible.’
Professor George Lewith, professor of health research at Southampton University, said: ‘Evidence for the efficacy of herbal medicines is growing; they may offer cheap, safe and effective approaches for many common complaints.’
Kaye McIntosh, of the College of Medicine, said: ‘Without statutory regulation, many herbal practitioners in the UK would have been unable to continue practising and thousands of patients would be unable to make the choice to use herbal treatments.’
At least six million Britons have consulted a herbal practitioner in the past two years, according to Ipsos Mori research.
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Comments (71)
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They've finally realized that herbal medicines are cheaper and just as effective as Big Pharma's.
- Keith, Cumbria, 16/2/2011 19:17
I agree with every word you've said. But you omitted "less dangerous".- Luca, London, 18/2/2011 15:18
I was prescribed vitamin and mineral supplements by an Integrated Doctor who helped me regain my health when conventional medicine had consigned me to the scrapheap. Firstly, the General Medical Council start attacking any doctor who practises on these lines (those doctors who combine the best of so called conventional medicine with nutritional medicine) then when we have to self-medicate as we have been denied access to these doctors, they start attacking the very supplements that are helping us. You have to ask yourself WHY and WHO is behind it. Someone does not want word to get out that nutritional medicine works. I wonder who that could be?
- JH, Guernsey, 18/2/2011 13:55
Why is it that there are so many people who feel that they have a right to tell others what they can or cannot use when it comes to personal health care. Its like religion, no one has the right to tell anyone what they should believe in. Herbal Medicine can be dangerous in the wrong hands and so it is right that the government should regulate it and ensure that all practicioners are fully qualified. Its a three year degree which includes many aspects of medical knowledge and diagnosis of ill health and red flags. I now of people who have been given the wrong herb from a health shop (shop assistant with no idea on red flags or contr indications) and it made them very poorly so going down this route reduces the risk to patients. Lets hope this is the start to all therapies becoming regulated which in turn will stop anyone calling themselves practitioners who have not been correctly trained.
- Ann Mourby, Preston, 18/2/2011 13:19
Appalling! More licensing, when will it stop? You will need a license to have kids next! Most pharmaceuticals have very bad side effects, they cost the NHS and the country a fortune due to the greedy malpractices of the research fiddling pharmaceutical companies. Now they want to get rid of the competition. It's all downhill. Still, it's your own fault. The great British public had their backbone removed somewhere along the line. I don't know how but I do know that 50 years ago we would never have stood for any of the sort of nonsense that we get on a daily basis now.
- Annie Linux, Sheffield, 18/2/2011 11:16
Cant help but see some here are not very well informed. They act like full paid big pharma mouth pieces, but amazingly there ARE people out there who are so ignorant they only believe the adverts in the glossy mags and on tv..they dont think for themselves and they fall for idiots....ie the Randi cult who drink homeopathic remedies by the bucket load and say it shows they dont work because they havent overdosed. It really is sad because they act like flat earthers jumping off walls saying why dont they "fall" upwards in the air if the world was round?. These"uninformed" expect an overdose because thats all they know about "modern drugs/medicine"....which should tell them something about allopathic medicine...but it "dont". We who "understand" MEDICINE should be allowed to use whatever herbs and vitamins we want. The EU is owned by Big Pharma.....currently the world is having a "revolution" meme that is spreading through the ME. Maybe it should flow through Europe as well
- chris, Narrogin Australia, 18/2/2011 10:41
This is very bad news. Only yesterday this paper ran a good article on red tape which outlined the detrimental effect it had on business yet here we have more red tape being applied to another part of life. The figures demanded by our greedy little ministers to register are huge with the price being put onto the cost of a consultation and treatment. Excess regulation will put this avenue of medicine out of reach to those that have already been let down by our own NHS and who have decided to explore other treatments. Once again over regulation has reduced the choice of the consumer.
- jim, london, 18/2/2011 09:48
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Tuesday 1 March 2011
Herbal medicines will survive after ministers approve plan that bypasses EU directive | Mail Online
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