The struggle waged by the Ministry of Health against the pseudoterapias, those practices without scientific evidence that they are presented as alternatives to cure, or mitigate diseases, has already entered the commercial field. The Foundation Natural Therapies, driven by companies and associations of the sector of the self-described natural medicine, has announced the filing of an administrative action against the Royal Decree 717/2019, of 5 of December, that “it forces you to demonstrate the effectiveness of homeopathy through clinical trials”, in the words of the entity itself.
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The new regulations “would deprive him of the uniqueness of the homeopathic medicine, and will require guarantees and safeguards that do not correspond with the consequent increase of the production of the drug, the withdrawal of existing authorisations and the shortage of supply in the Spanish market”, according to the statement released by the foundation on their website the past 17 days. “In addition, in the face of public opinion, would mean a hard blow to the sector, and hindering of illicit confidence of consumers”, continues the text.
The entity has declined to respond to requests for information, which has made him reach this day. The Ministry of Health, for its part, ensures that it has not yet received the formal communication of the demand.
The Foundation Natural Therapies presented to the public a year ago “to defend the scientific evidence of their treatments,” according to a press note dated in November 2018 in which he claimed to “bring together more than 90% of the professionals” of this kind of therapies. Although in its acts claims to be “a new foundation”, in the register of foundations of the Ministry of Justice consists with the NIF of another, called Health and Nature and created in 2005 by the company Soria Natural. This company, which among other products also sells dietary supplements, is the largest Spanish company in the sector, with a turnover of 31.9 million euros in 2018, according to accounts deposited in the Commercial Registry.
In the board of trustees of the Foundation Natural Therapies picked up your web page listed high-ranking officials of Soria Natural and other companies in the sector, as well as representatives of the guild of herbalists of Madrid and Catalonia. A spokesman for Soria Natural took away importance to the ties of the company with the foundation: “it Was something that we take a walk, but it has now taken on a life of its own”.
The royal decree approved by the Council of Ministers the past day 5 amending several articles of the one above. In connection with homeopathic medicines, provided that those who want to have a “therapeutic indication will be evaluated with the same criteria than any other drug” and, therefore, “to be presented by the clinical trials appropriate”.
To date, as well as in other countries of the European Union, it was enough for the presentation of bibliography “clinic” in which the authors were unable to support the indications for the experience or other sources, without the need for clinical trials. The foundation believes this change goes against “the harmonization of eu rules on medicines and homeopathic products”.
The ministry calls the practice of “risk to health”
The Spanish Government is fostering from a year ago, more restrictions on homeopathic medicines in the European Union. Health warned in September 2018 member States that “there have been deaths of cancer patients who opted for homeopathic products” and called the current rules of the “risk to health”.
Similarly, public Health has hardened in Spain the requirements for those homeopathic products that they want to go to market with a “therapeutic indication”. In the first process, a year ago, the sector resigned en masse to get this tag: only 12 of the 2.008 requests followed the procedure to achieve it, while the rest opted for the simplified, which allows them to continue in the market but with a warning to consumers that lack of therapeutic efficacy.
