Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive

EDM number 279 in 2002-03, proposed by Brian Iddon on 04/12/2002.

That this House notes that the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive is currently being considered by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers; observes that despite amendments passed by the Parliament the Directive would require dossiers to be submitted to the Medicines Control Agency for registration purposes and that the pharmaceutical standard testing required in producing those dossiers would impose costs of tens of thousands of pounds per product on manufacturers; further observes that in many cases the commercial value of specialist products being distributed through specialist retailers is such that producing such dossiers is prohibitively expensive; regrets that even as amended the Directive would not allow onto the market any overseas product which had not been on the European market for 10 years even if it were demonstrably safe and had been used for centuries; further oberves that the Council of Ministers is unlikely to accept all the amendments passed by the Parliament and that the finalised Directive will, therefore, lead to the loss of many existing popular herbal remedies and will undermine consumer protection as products continue to be available from overseas by mail-order with no quality or hygiene controls or in the United Kingdom at high cost from unlicensed and unregulated herbal practitioners; and urges the Secretary of State for Health to renegotiate the main provisions of this flawed Directive so that it does not put out of business specialist manufacturers and retailers or deny consumers access to herbal remedies of their choice.

This motion has been signed by a total of 220 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.