Angella Johnson
Traditional healers have accused the pharmaceutical industry of trying to muscle in on their lucrative natural herbal market after a company was ordered to stop producing products to be sold over the counter.
Pharmacare, a division of South African Druggists, was told by the Medicines Control Council (MCC) to stop making four cure-all herbal remedies sold as “Healers Choice” because of legislative constraints.
The company has refused, citing “a difference of opinion with the MCC” over an interpretation of the law. It also argues that the products are already widely available for sale in Europe and the United States.
“The natural-remedy market is worth some $16,5-billion worldwide and is growing at a phenomenal rate,” says Rodney Hesketh-Mare, general manager of Pharmacare.
“Local healers do not have a monopoly on these remedies. It may be that some healers will feel threatened, but we are approaching the market from a different angle and do not see any reason for conflict. Rather, they are complementary to what is sold on the streets.”
Hesketh-Mare says his company is only producing a limited supply from indigenous plants – such as buchu, used for stomach ailments – which are cultivated specifically for Pharmacare’s production.
“We are not plundering the environment and will provide uniform dosages with consistent quality and efficacy. They are standard formulae that offer well-documented therapeutic delivery,” he says.
This doesn’t satisfy Sipho Mndaweni, president of the Interim Co- ordinating Committee of Traditional Practitioners in South Africa. He complains that his members may end up being squeezed out of the market.
He insists South African Druggists is just testing the water before marketing more traditional medicines to be sold over the counter.
Mndaweni says his organisation has a membership of more than 200 000 sangomas, inyangas and “birth attendants” from affiliated associations across the country.
“We won’t see a cent of the vast profits they will make, even though people will buy these goods thinking it’s the same as what we do.”
His committee has made submissions to Parliament for recognition as a registered national council similar to that of doctors and other professional bodies. “That way we would be able to have some control over the trademark `traditional medicines’ and stop this kind of abuse,” says Mndaweni
Meanwhile the MCC admits it has reached an impasse with South African Druggists, which has failed to register the ingredients used in Healers Choice, as required under the national drug policy.
Says Bada Pharasi, chief director of registration, regulation and procurement: “The company is legally bound to … show that clinical trials have been held and produce documented evidence of the tests carried out, but at the moment we have … a difference of opinion.”