James Meikle, The Guardian
The cosmetic chain Neal's Yard Remedies has been ordered to withdraw a homeopathic remedy for malaria after medicines watchdogs decided its sale was potentially dangerous and misleading.
The product, which was "clearly intended to be viewed as a treatment or preventative" for a serious disease, had not been approved as required by law, the government's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said yesterday.
It clamped down on the remedy, Malaria Officinalis 30c, after being alerted by the BBC and a member of the public last month. Neal's Yard has already withdrawn the product, which had been available for more than 20 years.
Homeopathic remedies are classed as medicines and require MHRA authorisation before going on the market, the watchdog said. It could find no record of such approval. David Carter, head of the team investigating such products, said: "We regard the promotion of an unauthorised, self-medicating product for such a serious condition to be potentially harmful to public health and misleading. We are pleased that Neal's Yard Remedies have complied with our request and removed this product from the market."
Susan Curtis, the company's medicines director, denied it had advertised or sold the remedy as a prevention for malaria. "It has been supplied on request by practitioners working in Neal's Yard Remedies stores and in fact practitioners have been trained to always explain that the remedy should not be considered as a guarantee of prevention of malaria.
"The name of the remedy is based on its Latin name and not on its claim to cure or prevent an ailment. However, as this was obviously a contentious issue which could cause our customers' concern, and at the request of the MHRA, Neal's Yard Remedies took the decision to withdraw the product from sale with immediate effect, from April 17 2008." The company added that it was not aware of any other remedies being under question.
The warning follows the airing of the BBC's Inside Out programme, Homeopathy and Malaria, last month. Its presenter Janine Jansen was sold homeopathic remedies at Neal's Yard's store in Exeter and was advised she could use them to help deal with malaria, according to the programme.
After the programme was aired, a statement on Neal's Yard website said that Curtis had been interviewed for the programme and "unfortunately a lot of what she was trying to say was not shown".
The website statement added: "We know there have been no clinical trials for the use of homeopathy in the prevention of malaria but homeopathy does have a good track record in preventing and treating other endemic diseases."
The cosmetic chain Neal's Yard Remedies has been ordered to withdraw a homeopathic remedy for malaria after medicines watchdogs decided its sale was potentially dangerous and misleading.
The product, which was "clearly intended to be viewed as a treatment or preventative" for a serious disease, had not been approved as required by law, the government's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said yesterday.
It clamped down on the remedy, Malaria Officinalis 30c, after being alerted by the BBC and a member of the public last month. Neal's Yard has already withdrawn the product, which had been available for more than 20 years.
Homeopathic remedies are classed as medicines and require MHRA authorisation before going on the market, the watchdog said. It could find no record of such approval. David Carter, head of the team investigating such products, said: "We regard the promotion of an unauthorised, self-medicating product for such a serious condition to be potentially harmful to public health and misleading. We are pleased that Neal's Yard Remedies have complied with our request and removed this product from the market."
Susan Curtis, the company's medicines director, denied it had advertised or sold the remedy as a prevention for malaria. "It has been supplied on request by practitioners working in Neal's Yard Remedies stores and in fact practitioners have been trained to always explain that the remedy should not be considered as a guarantee of prevention of malaria.
"The name of the remedy is based on its Latin name and not on its claim to cure or prevent an ailment. However, as this was obviously a contentious issue which could cause our customers' concern, and at the request of the MHRA, Neal's Yard Remedies took the decision to withdraw the product from sale with immediate effect, from April 17 2008." The company added that it was not aware of any other remedies being under question.
The warning follows the airing of the BBC's Inside Out programme, Homeopathy and Malaria, last month. Its presenter Janine Jansen was sold homeopathic remedies at Neal's Yard's store in Exeter and was advised she could use them to help deal with malaria, according to the programme.
After the programme was aired, a statement on Neal's Yard website said that Curtis had been interviewed for the programme and "unfortunately a lot of what she was trying to say was not shown".
The website statement added: "We know there have been no clinical trials for the use of homeopathy in the prevention of malaria but homeopathy does have a good track record in preventing and treating other endemic diseases."
Autant certaines croyances peuvent prêter à rire, autant dans un cas comme celui-ci, on aurait tendance à demander des peines très sévères pour mise en danger de la vie d'autrui, exercice illégal de la médecine ou de la pharmacie. Le paludisme est une maladie très sérieuse et rien ne justifie son traitement avec de la poudre de perlimpimpin en espérant que le mal passera tout seul en quelques jours.
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