Alternative Medicine Company Audited

[athon]

I'm not sure if this issue has been addressed on another thread, but I'll put it up here and see if it gets any responses.

Over the past few days, a major alternative medicine company here in Australia has been audited by the administration that looks after all therapeutic products.

The thing is, I can't believe how many people are shocked over the revelation that there are no laws requiring a company to provide evidence that their 'alternative' medicine needs to work. It has taken a major stuff up like this to bring it to their attention.

The audit came about because travel sickness tablets made by the company caused hallucinations in some users. The tablets were found to contain over 400 times the amount of active product. Apparentally the company had bypassed half of their quality control measures, and were even found to be replacing ingrediants willy-nilly. We are not surprised, but half of the country is sickened. There is now the biggest recall of products happening in Australian history!

Will this change anything? Fingers crossed...

Athon

[corplinx]

Originally posted by athon
The audit came about because travel sickness tablets made by the company caused hallucinations in some users.

Soooooo. Got any? :)

[athon]

Originally posted by corplinx


Soooooo. Got any? :)

No. The monkey stole them and gave the packet to his talking banana.

Athon

[reprise]

Yeah, I started a thread about the whole Pan Pharmaceuticals debacle.

I'd just like to make one point in the interests of accuracy. Pan is NOT an "alternative medicine company". It is a pharmaceutical manufacturer which is contracted to produce pharmaceutical product - alternative AND conventional - for other companies.

It DOES produce 70% of the vitamin/natural therapy pills sold in Australia, but it's also manufactures paracetamol (tylenol to you Americans), codeine, antihistamines and pseudoephedrine.

The original product which sparked this investigation was NOT an alternative medicine, it was a pharmacy only CONVENTIONAL motion sickness medication.

Pan deserves to be hung, drawn, and quartered over their shoddy practises, but please let's acknowledge that this is ONE major manufacturer who violated the standard set for the manufacture of both alternative and conventional products.

While the alternative health products manufactured by Pan might not have been efficacious, had the manufacturing standards not been violated, the issue of their safety would not now be under scrutiny - nor would the safety of the conventional products manufactured by the same company.

FWIW, the TGA needs its ass kicked bigtime for not having immediately shut down Pan temporarily in January - yes, Pan would have taken them to court, and possibly won, but it would have been a hell of a better situation than the one we are now facing. There's not much point in giving the TGA teeth if they never use them.

And yes, it's inevitable that "alternative medicine" will now be subjected to much more stringent regulation - which is in itself a good thing - but an awful lot of small companies who were doing the "right" thing and complying with all the existing standards will now have little option than to either sell out to the larger, multinational pharmaceutical companies or go under.

[reprise]

Quick note to add that the specific drugs in Travacalm (the tablet which started it all) are caffeine, dimenhydrinate, and hyoscine.

[athon]

Good points, reprise.

Although, the reason for the lax quality controls were linked with its complimentary medicine side of its company. I admit, while I'm not 100% clued in on how it works (if shown otherwise, I'll admit I'm wrong), and while it does manufacture a large amount of 'traditional' medication, I think Pan is still technically an alternative medicine company, in so much as it is adminstrated by the TMA, and does not have to undergo as stringent tests as 'traditional' medicine companies. It falls through a loophole, a law which states that a medicine does not have to provide proof that its product works if it is therapeutic, but it does have to have it on file 'in case they are asked' (which they never are).

These are my assumptions based on the small amount I know from my days in pathology.

Thanks,

Athon

[reprise]

I'm just getting dinner at the moment, while trying to locate the information on which parts of Pan's operations were covered by which regulations (I'll hunt it up ASAP).

A couple of interesting sidebars on this is that there is not requirement on the person contracting with Pan to perform any quality control of their own before they then onsell the product to others - Pan signing off that they have complied with all relevant legislative requirements is enough to get the giant companies who contract with them off the legal hook.

The OTHER thing which seems to have been lost in all the media furore is the sheer number of established CONVENTIONAL pharmaceutical and medical companies have been selling off-label alternative products to the public. At last count, I think the Mayne Group had at least 6 different brands of vitamins/remedies which had been recalled. The Mayne Group - the one which runs hospitals, group medical practises, and aged care facilities throughout Australia and whose advertisements remind us of their world class medical and scientific standards.

A heck of a lot of these large companies whose business is supplying prescription medications to the community seem to have been more than willing to peddle a little snake-oil on the side - and have created off-brand labels for purely that purpose.

Back after dinner with some sites if I can get to the TGA site.

[Mr Manifesto]

In any case any out of work lawyers should come down here as soon as possible. The lawsuits will go well into the 22nd century. And I'm not talking about private citizens taking bad medicine either.

[arcticpenguin]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,7070031%255E1702,00.html

THE former head of Pan Pharmaceuticals has threatened to take legal action against the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) over the nation's largest pharmaceutical recall.

Jim Selim wants a judicial inquiry into the TGA, a call rejected by parliamentary secretary for health Trish Worth.

Sure, blame the regulatory agency for your numerous and wanton failures.