Unlicensed herbal medicines to escape EU ban

17th February 2011 - Suppliers of herbal and Chinese medicines in the UK will be able to avoid a ban on supplying unlicensed products after the Government announced plans to allow them to continue their trade providing they join a register.

Under a European Union Directive, which will take full effect at the end of April, it would be illegal for practitioners to supply unlicensed medicines to their customers. However, the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said the Government would make use of a derogation in EU medicines legislation that that allows national arrangements to permit those designated as ‘authorised healthcare professionals’ to commission unlicensed medicines to meet the special needs of their patients.

“This Government wish to ensure that the public can continue to have access to these products,” Lansley said in a ministerial written statement.

‘Historic day’: Herbalists

The Association of Master Herbalists described it as “an historic day for herbal medicine practice in the UK”. However, the president of the Royal College of Physicians, said it put herbal therapies “with no proven benefit” on the same level as other branches of medicine.

Herbalists and Chinese medicine practitioners would have to join a register run by the Health Professions Council (HPC) if they are to be permitted to continue supplying unlicensed medicines, the Department of Health said.

Lansley also announced that the new system would be underpinned by “a strengthened system for regulating medicinal products”.

Legislation

The Department of Health said it planned to change the law to compel suppliers of unlicensed medicines to join the HPC register. The four Health Departments in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will consult jointly on draft legislation so that a UK-wide approach can be established, probably by 2012.

Peter Jackson-Main, vice-chairman of the Association of Master Herbalists (AMH), told us by email: “it sets a precedent which we very much hope will now be emulated in other nations globally.  The AMH is ready and willing to continue its efforts in working with the new regulator to establish the national register and affirm the core standards of the profession."

‘No proven benefit’

Opponents of the move have criticised the Government decision. Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said in an emailed statement: “We are disappointed to hear of government plans to bring in statutory regulation for herbal practitioners in the UK. The proposed register will imply herbal therapies have the same legitimacy as medicine, nursing and dentistry, despite offering patients no proven benefit.”