The sale of alternative medicines is likely to be regulated by an independent authority, the chief executive of the Irish Medicines Board, Dr Frank Hallinan, has said.
The IMB regulates the manufacture and sale of conventional drugs and medicines and of veterinary medicines. Last year it recommended that the herbal medicine St John's Wort be made available only on prescription to prevent it interfering with other medicines. The controversial recommendation was accepted by the Department of Health. The IMB has advertised for a herbal medicine project manager, who will develop recommendations for the Minister for Health.
Herbal medicines need regulation, Dr Hallinan said. He said anybody who wanted to make a herbal medicine should be obliged to prove its efficacy and safety to an independent authority.
Traditional herbal medicines might be dealt with differently. So long as their distributors did not claim that they cured particular conditions, they would not have to prove that they were effective - only that they were safe and manufactured to adequate standards. He stressed that this option was still at the discussion stage.
The independent authority could be the IMB or another body, he said. Dr Hallinan promised that the IMB would be more active in enforcing regulations on the manufacture and sale of medicines. The board has taken over the enforcement role from the Department of Health and is to employ an official to investigate breaches of the regulations. The board will be able to initiate prosecutions and seek injunctions.
The IMB will tomorrow publish its plan on its website at: www.imb.ie