UK medicines regulation is now officially non-scientific

Asolepius

Graduate Poster
Asolepius
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
1,150
Many of you will have heard about the new licensing regulations for homeopathy. The MHRA press release is here. These regs were sneaked in while parliament was in recess, without a debate. Such is the apathy of most MPs that they took no notice. This scandal will not go unchallenged. Sense About Science is running a campaign to oppose it, and you can sign up to a statement of objection here. IMPORTANT: Please do this before parliament returns on 9th October. Also if anyone is a member of a relevant professional organisation please PM me for further actions you can take.
 
Done, but I had to admit that I'm currently living in China. Don't know what effect that will have
 
wollery said:
Done, but I had to admit that I'm currently living in China. Don't know what effect that will have
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Probably more effect than the rest of us in the UK will have, seeing as how we now seem live in cloud cuckoo land, and that every time China seems to cough, the Western world catches flu

(PS this last statement is both rhetorical and literal)
 
I have signed up and commented as follows;

"We deplore the intrusion of unscientific and anti-rational therapies into the practice of medicine and condemn in the strongest terms the provision by the MHRA of a cloak of respectability to such a therapy.

This is in direct contradiction to the mission statement on the MHRA's website;

"We enhance and safeguard the health of the public by ensuring that medicines and medical devices work, and are acceptably safe."

By licensing homeopathic remedies the MHRA is failing in every single one of these aims."

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING IT IS IMPORTANT:

I have also read the MHRA's Press release and it contains this information;

"All homeopathic medicines fall within the scope of the Yellow Card Scheme, which will allow patients and healthcare professionals to report suspected side effects to the MHRA. For over 40 years, the Yellow Card Scheme has been the cornerstone of medicines safety monitoring in the UK. Since the Yellow Card scheme was set up, over 500,000 reports of suspected side effects (known as adverse drug reactions) have been completed, enabling the MHRA to identify and take action on a wide range of previously unrecognised medicines safety issues. Adverse effects associated with the use of homeopathic medicines should be reported to the MHRA using the Yellow Card Reporting Scheme. "

I had been wondering about this, and was pleased to see it explicitly confirmed by the MHRA. This is important, because adverse reactions include lack of efficacy. There is the potential to poke a hefty stick through the spokes of the homeopathic industry's wheels by encouraging the reporting of suspected treatment failures.
 
This is sad.

To me, this is what sceptics and atheists should be doing instead of worrying about what retarded CT posters come up with. CT can be safely ignored, but homeopathy gaining any sort of legitimacy is an insult to any human who still considers him/herself to be a cognitive being.

Little bit far from the action, but if I can help, I will.

Good luck with it.
 
Badly Shaved Monkey said:
I have also read the MHRA's Press release and it contains this information;

"All homeopathic medicines fall within the scope of the Yellow Card Scheme, which will allow patients and healthcare professionals to report suspected side effects to the MHRA. For over 40 years, the Yellow Card Scheme has been the cornerstone of medicines safety monitoring in the UK. Since the Yellow Card scheme was set up, over 500,000 reports of suspected side effects (known as adverse drug reactions) have been completed, enabling the MHRA to identify and take action on a wide range of previously unrecognised medicines safety issues. Adverse effects associated with the use of homeopathic medicines should be reported to the MHRA using the Yellow Card Reporting Scheme."

I had been wondering about this, and was pleased to see it explicitly confirmed by the MHRA. This is important, because adverse reactions include lack of efficacy. There is the potential to poke a hefty stick through the spokes of the homeopathic industry's wheels by encouraging the reporting of suspected treatment failures.
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In addition to the Yellow Card Scheme, there's also the "Defective Medicines Report Centre", to which you can report "actual or suspected defects in medicinal products". (pointed out by Deetee). According to an EU directive quoted in a document linked to on that page, one of the circumstances under which a recall of a medicine may be required is "if a medicinal product is lacking in therapeutic efficacy".
 
Mojo said:
In addition to the Yellow Card Scheme, there's also the "Defective Medicines Report Centre", to which you can report "actual or suspected defects in medicinal products". (pointed out by Deetee). According to an EU directive quoted in a document linked to on that page, one of the circumstances under which a recall of a medicine may be required is "if a medicinal product is lacking in therapeutic efficacy".
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I think that to make this stick we would all have to buy a great many products and then complain that they didn't work. The scheme is intended for consumers and practitioners.
 
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