Herbal medicines in the framework of European regulations

Résumé 0

Herbal medicines have experienced renewed interest in Europe. According to recent statistics, the corresponding turnover is about 4 billion euro, half of it for Germany and a quarter for France.1'400 medicinal plants have been recorded in the various preparations authorized in France. This growing interest is spreading, not only in the public at large, but also among doctors who prescribe more and more of these products though there is no obligation to do so.However, scientists sometimes disregard the studies mentioned in the literature and documentation for reference and the competent authorities are not prepared to acknowledge the qualities of herbal medicinesThe complexity of preparations based on vegetable drugs might be taken as the cause of the ambiguous attitudes displayed by the national authorities in charge of issuing marketing authorizations when it comes to assessing the quality, safety and efficacy of these products.The wide range of situations in the member states, some dramatic events such as the kidney accidents that occurred in Belgium five years ago or the interaction between St-John's wort and the anti-retroviral medicines, and popular interest had induced the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products to address the issue of herbal medicines on request by the Parliament as they were aware that this situation might have negative repercussions on public health.As this topic is not pivotal in the preoccupations of the Agency whose research is focused on innovative medicines, a taskforce was set up to investigate plant-based medicines.