Organic News
Herbal remedies no longer viable under new regulation says Judith Hoad
A few centuries ago, practitioners of Traditional Medicine were brutally treated to exterminate them and their knowledge. Today, the Irish Government, with the EU behind them, is determined to do the same, but without the same physical brutality. People who make herbal remedies and people who make homoeopathic remedies are affected by the EU Directive on Traditional Medicine. By 2011, all remedies, provided they have been on sale before that date, must be registered. New products are out of the question.
In order to register one product, (a manufacturer may have tens, or even hundreds of products), a fee of nearly €6,000 is required (these fees can be checked on the IMB website). In addition, the product requires a 'dossier', full of as much technical detail as those submitted for chemotherapeutic drugs in the past. This document has to be compiled by a qualified pharmacist on behalf of the manufacturer. At the most conservative estimate, this will cost €24.000. That's €30,000, minimum to apply to register a product, with no guarantee that the application will succeed. Heavy sanctions will no doubt prevail against those who fail to apply by 2011 and who continue to produce.
The personal buyer will be unable to buy what has hitherto been readily available; Herbalists and Homoeopaths will be unable to buy the remedies they wish to prescribe for their patients; health shops will be unable to buy products they formerly stocked and may go out of business and many manufacturers will go out of business as a result of these extortionate fees. Please form local protest groups. Go on local and national radio. Write letters to you TD and to your MEP and to the Minister for Health, Mary Harney. Write letters to the press, both local and national. You are about to lose the right to purchase the natural remedies of your choice.
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Regards
Claire Quinn - cmquinn99@yahoo.co.uk