African traditional medicines should not become ”bogged down in clinical trials” when being subjected to research and development, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday.
Addressing members of the presidential task team on African traditional medicine, Tshabalala-Msimang said: ”We cannot use Western models of protocols for research and development. We should guard against being bogged down with clinical trials.”
She later explained that she was not against clinical trials per se. ”But some of the medicines have been used by traditional healers for thousands of years. Clinical trials need protocols for traditional medicine.”
She also warned against ”charlatans tarnishing the image of this sector [traditional African medicine]” and ”who promise our desperate help-seeking people all sorts of things that are not practically possible to deliver”.
The task team is trying to come up with legal guidelines on traditional African medicines. It is expected to present these to the Cabinet early in March. It is also expected to discuss the naming of traditional medicines and patent and ownership rights.
”This lack of documentation [in traditional medicine] sometimes creates serious legal challenges,” said Tshabalala-Msimang. — Sapa