§ 2. Mr. Desmond Swayne (New Forest, West)If he will make a statement about the licensing of homoeopathic medicines. [38672]
§ The Minister for Public Health (Ms Tessa Jowell)Homoeopathic medicines marketed in the United Kingdom must either have a registration certificate under the homoeopathic registration scheme or a marketing authorisation issued by the licensing authority.
§ Mr. SwayneWhat will the hon. Lady do to ensure that the licensing system does not become an enormous economy of scale which will be used by large drug companies to exclude smaller firms which currently serve the market very well?
§ Ms JowellAs the hon. Gentleman will be aware, the homeopathic medicine industry is regulated by European directive. There are some quite disturbing inconsistencies in the marketing requirements for products, depending on when they were licensed. Our concern is to ensure that no homeopathic product is marketed in such a way that unproven medicinal claims are inadvertently made about its effectiveness that would be misleading to the public.
§ Mr. Alan Simpson (Nottingham, South)I am grateful for the Minister's supplementary answer. Does she accept that it is absurd that, if I buy arnica for my football bruising from a company that has the original product licence of right from the 1960s, the packaging tells me that the product is for bruising, whereas the packaging of arnica produced by a newer company cannot tell me that? Is it possible for the United Kingdom to seek a dispensation simply to allow companies to be able to offer the same information about homeopathic products?
§ Ms JowellMy hon. Friend makes an important point. The European directive provides for member states to take action in relation to efficacy of products. Only France has so far drawn up guidelines, but, given the growing public interest in homeopathic medicine and complementary medicine more generally, I shall certainly want to study the issue closely.