By PHP Staff
Monday, February 21, 2011
LONDON, U.K. : Practitioners of Ayurvedic and other traditional medicines in Europe are bracing themselves for a tough licensing system similar to that for Western medicines. The EU's Traditional Herbal Medical Products Directive is set to come into effect on May 1, and requires any herbal medicine sold over the counter to have either a Traditional Herbal Registration or a marketing authorization. The legislation is tantamount to a ban on ayurvedic herbs, as just over 70 herbal products in the UK (none of which is Ayurvedic) have so far got the licence.
Mr Sebastian Pole, an Ayurvedic practitioner who runs Bristol-based firm Pukka Herbs with around 500 employees in India, said his company had been working on obtaining licences for six products at the cost of around US$161,500. 'It's a very onerous process and is going to have a very negative impact on all traditional medicines,' he said. 'Yes, it's good to improve standards but this is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.'
Dr. Shantha Godagama, President, Ayurvedic Medical Association, who sits on the advisory board of the UK's Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency, said that while change and regulation were necessary in the long term to improve standards, in the short term it would merely reduce choice and hit the smallest firms the hardest. He said that in his time on the advisory committee, not a single application for a herbalist licence had been received.
Monday, February 21, 2011
LONDON, U.K. : Practitioners of Ayurvedic and other traditional medicines in Europe are bracing themselves for a tough licensing system similar to that for Western medicines. The EU's Traditional Herbal Medical Products Directive is set to come into effect on May 1, and requires any herbal medicine sold over the counter to have either a Traditional Herbal Registration or a marketing authorization. The legislation is tantamount to a ban on ayurvedic herbs, as just over 70 herbal products in the UK (none of which is Ayurvedic) have so far got the licence.
Mr Sebastian Pole, an Ayurvedic practitioner who runs Bristol-based firm Pukka Herbs with around 500 employees in India, said his company had been working on obtaining licences for six products at the cost of around US$161,500. 'It's a very onerous process and is going to have a very negative impact on all traditional medicines,' he said. 'Yes, it's good to improve standards but this is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.'
Dr. Shantha Godagama, President, Ayurvedic Medical Association, who sits on the advisory board of the UK's Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency, said that while change and regulation were necessary in the long term to improve standards, in the short term it would merely reduce choice and hit the smallest firms the hardest. He said that in his time on the advisory committee, not a single application for a herbalist licence had been received.
It's a good idea.Now there won't be any chance of duplicate products.We can get original products.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, Gopichand. It's hightime the UN put their efforts into seperating right from wrong in the medical area. It will surely improve our life standard regardless of where we live.
ReplyDelete