Call for an Australian crackdown on complementary and alternative medicines

Jan 9 2008

A team of Australian researchers says there is an urgent need for the overhaul of the regulation of complementary medicines.

The researchers from La Trobe University in Victoria say many products on the market do not work and have not been properly tested by authorities.

The researchers led by Dr. Ken Harvey focused on medications which claim to assist weight loss which he says are generally ignored by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) because they are considered harmless.

Dr. Harvey says while that may have been acceptable 10 or 15 years ago, there has been a huge increase in the use of complementary medicines by the public.

Harvey says a number of surveys have shown that the public are unaware that such medicines are not evaluated for efficacy and complaints about the products are not dealt with properly.

It seems complaints can take many months to go through the system and even when sanctions are applied and claims made regarding the product do not reflect the evidence, in essence the sponsors of the products are told not to do it again but they increasingly do so.

The TGA says it follows an internationally recognised system of assessing medicines according to their potential risk but there are nevertheless apparently more than 1000 weight-loss drugs which have been listed by Australia's medicines regulator over the past decade and just 10 have been officially registered by the TGA; the others have not had their ingredients scientifically tested.

The researchers found that promotional claims were "often not in accord with the scientific evidence available" and most of the drugs contained herbs, vitamins and minerals of "dubious efficacy".

Dr. Harvey says the failure to evaluate listed products for efficacy has created a commercial opportunity for the sponsors at the expense of informed consumer choice and protection.

The Australian Medical Association supports Dr. Harvey in calling upon the Commonwealth to change the way it approves the drugs and says while there is nothing wrong with complementary medicines, they need to be dealt with within the same regulatory framework as therapeutic medicines.

Doug Travis, president of AMA Victoria says the public has a right to know that the claims of their medicines are reasonable but at present it is left to the normal marketplace mechanisms of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Dr. Harvey suggests that public education campaigns about alternative medicines and proper labelling are necessary and that companies should face tougher penalties for making false claims about their products.