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Will the EU curb homoeopathy?

steenkh

Philosopher
steenkh
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While on holiday in Austria I noticed a headline about homoeopathy. It said "The End of Homoeopathy is Near" ("Es droht die Ende der Homöopathie") and even though it was not in a serious magazine, but one of those ubiquitous TV magazines with news about the rich and famous, and a horoscope, I just had to buy it! (Die Ganze Woche 19 February 2014, nr. 8)

The subtitle was "New control craze of EU has consequences" ("Neuer Kontrollwahn der EU hat Folgen"), and I thought it was a pretty good start! Well, the EU has unfortunately not demanded proof that homoeopathy works, but it turned out that it wants that homoeopathy should no longer be exempt from tests for side effects. Apparently, all "complex" alternative medicines have to submit to these tests that are paid for by the producer. In the article it was claimed that for a "small" business with "merely" 4.8 million Euro turnover the tests would be about 2.2 million Euro, and would kill the business. Considering that other CAMs already pay this and are still in business, and that homoeopathy has no active ingredients, so they effectively only pay for the packaging, I cannot see the problem.

Anyway, in the article they tell us how many people will be out of work if this craziness is put into effect, and we are also told that "side effects are very rare" in homoeopathy, but apparently not nonexistent, so it is still unclear to me why they think the side effects should not be investigated. I could imagine that people with lactose intolerance cannot tolerate the pills, and some homoeopaths might have been tempted to spice their pills with substances of proven efficiency, which in turn creates a real risk of side effects.

The article details a number of initiatives to stop the bureaucrats from failing all the patients "who are dependent on homoeopathy". It will be interesting to see if the EU can go through with the motion.
 
If the EU try to ban Homeopathy the UK Press and Govt will want to do the opposite.
 
Yeh and I believe the future King of England is a bit of a woo regarding homeopathy.
 
I've no idea to what this article is referring. The EU has issued a public consultation on patient safety, and the responses so far are here. I see that the European Council for Classical Homeopathy responded, but haven't read what they said.
 
"I could imagine that people with lactose intolerance cannot tolerate the pills, and some homoeopaths might have been tempted to spice their pills with substances of proven efficiency, which in turn creates a real risk of side effects.

The article details a number of initiatives to stop the bureaucrats from failing all the patients "who are dependent on homoeopathy". It will be interesting to see if the EU can go through with the motion. "

I've seen the hilited happen and hope the EU can implement regulated testing of these products.
 
Asolepius said:
I've no idea to what this article is referring.
Click to expand...
I re-read the article and possibly this paragraph could help narrow down what the article is talking about:
Im Detail sieht die neue Verordnung für die Begutachtung eines Gebühr von 19.500 Euro vor. Während vereinfacht registrierte Homöopathika (homöopathische Einzelmittel, die viele Anwendungsbereiche zugleich abdecken) von diesen Gebühren befreit sind, müssen für alle anderen sogenannten "Komplex-Mittel", beispielsweise Tropfen gegen Schwindel, in Zukunft hohe Abgaben von den Herstellern an die Europäische Arzneimittelbehörde EMA bezahlt werden.
Click to expand...
I believe this could translate to:
Specifically, the new regulation introduces a fee of 19,500 Euros for the evaluation. While simple registered homoeopathica (single homoeopathic substances that cover several areas of use) are exempt from these fees, all other so-called "complex substances", for instance drops against dizziness, causes large amounts to be paid in the future by the producers to the European Medicines Agency EMA.

Does this ring any bells?
 
pakeha said:
"I could imagine that people with lactose intolerance cannot tolerate the pills, and some homoeopaths might have been tempted to spice their pills with substances of proven efficiency, which in turn creates a real risk of side effects.
Click to expand...

In fact, that's been a bit of a debate in the US; how can something be called homeopathic if it actually contains active substances. Unfortunately, due to the ridiculous lack of regulation; they can get away with it by simply labeling the homeopathic non-substance as the "active" ingredient; and listing everything else, however potentially harmful, as the "inactive" ingredient. I recall one particular such example that I personally encountered, that was marketed as a homeopathic remedy for upset stomach following... overindulgence. The "active" ingredient was the usual "might contain one single molecule of this if you're very lucky" nonsense; while the "inactive" ingredients were things like sodium bicarbonate and charcoal, the effects of which should be obvious. Naturally, any efficacy was attributed to the "active" nonsense, not the "inactive" stuff that most reasonable people would recommend to help hangover-related queasiness.
 
luchog said:
In fact, that's been a bit of a debate in the US; how can something be called homeopathic if it actually contains active substances. Unfortunately, due to the ridiculous lack of regulation; they can get away with it by simply labeling the homeopathic non-substance as the "active" ingredient; and listing everything else, however potentially harmful, as the "inactive" ingredient. I recall one particular such example that I personally encountered, that was marketed as a homeopathic remedy for upset stomach following... overindulgence. The "active" ingredient was the usual "might contain one single molecule of this if you're very lucky" nonsense; while the "inactive" ingredients were things like sodium bicarbonate and charcoal, the effects of which should be obvious. Naturally, any efficacy was attributed to the "active" nonsense, not the "inactive" stuff that most reasonable people would recommend to help hangover-related queasiness.
Click to expand...

Nice one!
So I'm sipping a homeopathic remedy at the moment, composed of homeopathic air and as an inactive ingredient, a very decent little Rioja.
Gottit.
 
I think that if something is listed in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States they can legally call it homeopathic. The HPUS was grandfathered into the laws regulating medicines.
 
Posadzki, P., Alotaibi, A., Ernst, E., (2012) Adverse effects of homeopathy: a systematic review of published case reports and case series International Journal of Clinical Practice Vol. 66 no. 12 pp. 1178–1188

Links etc here - http://www.rationalvetmed.org/papers_p-q.html#Posadzki2012

Question - How can something with nothing in it cause harm? Answer - when it's used instead of real medicine or when it's adulterated with pharmaceuticals which aren't declared on the label.

If herbal remedies are "often contaminated" - http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/11/222 - then why not homeopathic ones. I don't imagine their quality control systems can be terribly robust: "hang on, this remedy contains absolutely no calendula whatsoever whereas, in fact, it should contain absolutely no arnica whatsoever - shocking!".

:D

Yuri
 
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