The Statement given by EUROCAM
EUROCAM, representing 60,000 organised patients/citizens, 250 national associations and a substantial part of the 400,000 doctors, veterinarians and practitioners in the sector of Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM) across Europe, welcomes the Commission’s Roadmap towards a Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe.
The precarious status of herbal products in the EU
by! The Herbal Working Group of the CAM Stakeholder Group !
Presenter: Robert Verkerk PhD - Alliance for Natural Health International!
Also on behalf of:
! EHTPA - European Herbal & Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association!
EITAM - European Initiative for Traditional Asian Medicine!
Use of herbals in the EU!
Market reports consistently show herbal medicine most popular form of complementary medicine used in Europe !
Germany and France = market leaders!
Herbal medicines widely used across the EU e.g. 2009 UK MHRA* showed that over a quarter of the UK population had used a herbal remedy in the previous 2 years !
Consumers relying on the legislators to provide them with a full range of traditional herbal medicines. Failure to achieve this will force consumers to buy from unreliable internet sources or back-street traders".
EC Directive 2004/24/EC - Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive - THMPD!
Original goal of THMPD: safe and ready access to traditional herbal medicinal products (THMPs) in the EU. To date only around 200 THMPs in 27 MSs registered since 2004.!
The THMPD has failed to provide for THMPs from systems of traditional medicine, such as Ayurveda (from the Indian subcontinent) or traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).!
THMPD does not clearly define the borderline between traditional herbal medicines and botanicals in food supplements!
European Medicinal Agency - Adaptive Pathways - Final report
In March 2014 EMA launched a pilot project to explore the adaptive pathways approach, a scientific concept of medicines development and data generation intended for medicines that address patients’ unmet medical needs.