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“I have no beef with the herbals industry and categorically deny that, as the letter implies, I am influenced by the pharma industry,” an emotional Elizabeth Williamson (pictured), from the University of Reading, told NutraIngredients this morning.
“I have been a champion of the herbal industry for 30 years and in my letter was simply voicing concerns about herbal products that it is my view are better regulated under the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD),” the professor and Director of Clinical Pharmacy at the Uni of Reading continued.
“To leak something like this casts aspersions on my professional career and my department and implies I am inept and corrupt. I am crushed and devastated by it and haven’t slept in four days. You spend a lifetime defending herbal products and then this. I am seriously considering leaving the area.”
Leaked letter
The ‘leak’ is Professor Williamson’s letter written to UK Secretary for Health, Andrew Lansley, expressing her view that most medicinal herbs should be regulated under the EU THMPD and not as food supplements.
The ANH published the letter on its website on Friday along with two open letters written by its executive and scientific director, Robert Verkerk, PhD, to both Professor Williamson and Lansley.
Those documents can be found here.
The ANH letter highlights what it views as Professor Williamson’s misconceptions of European food supplements law which it states are able to ensure the safety and efficacy of herbal products.
One part of the ANH's letter states: “…your position would seem to taint your scientific independence, and suggests that your primary concern is to protect one particular sector of the herbal industry with which you are likely to have close ties.”
Not personal
Speaking with NutraIngredients, Dr Verkerk said his organisation had leaked the letter to bring into the public sphere the debate about the, “narrow line between herbal products used for medicine and wellness”.
“This is not meant to be a personal attack,” he said. “I would urge professor Williamson and anyone else to engage the issues raised in our letter.”
In it, Dr Verkerk wrote: “Backroom discussions between larger vested interests and government officials appear to have been the order of the day.”
He said the idea that almost all herbal products should be classified as medicines belied the fact many of them were not used as medicines but promoters of wellness, in the manner of food supplements. Only Echinacea and St John’s wort deserved exclusive THMPD treatment, he said of an EU Directive his group believes is too costly and discriminates against Chinese, Ayurvedic and other traditional medicines.
The UK medicines regulator – the MHRA – has issued more than 10 warning letters to companies manufacturing herbal products it has deemed medicinal but lacking a THMPD license. Most of those were mailed more than 12 months ago but no enforcement action has as yet been taken and the MHRA has ceased to answer queries about its intentions in that area.
The ANH has announced its intention to challenge the THMPD in the courts and says one target in the case it is building is the UK Department of Health.
On its website, the group added of Professor Williamson's letter: "In the face of an ongoing campaign by certain phytopharmaceutical companies to portray herbal food supplements as a danger to public health and in need of yet more regulation – including questions in both Houses of the UK Parliament – Professor Williamson’s intervention was at risk of wielding a dangerous level of influence. Accordingly, we felt compelled to do something about this, exposing what might have otherwise been kept behind closed doors."
9 comments (Comments are now closed)
food, herbs and medicines
Suzanne said, "where does food end and medicine start!"
A very good question! To me there seems to be several aspects to this - what the product actually does and what the packaging says about what it can do for me. I want to buy something (actually whether herbal or not!) that does what it says on the tin. So if it says it can treat my eczema, then I want to know that it is both safe for me and effective for my eczema.
But I don't understand what you say here "Standardized extracts in my opinion should be regulated as drugs. There should have to be clinical trials to prove and one compound or more compounds exaggerated. They are no longer as found in nature. Clinical trials should be required to prove safety at least. The full matrix and integrity of the herb is no longer present. It is no longer what it was!"
Standardisation is good in that it is easier to predict the effects of a dose on a person and I agree with you when you say there should be tests to make sure we understand what they do and how safe they are.
But if herbs are not standardised (how could they be?) then surely there is even more need to have good information on what their affects are particularly when there can be so much variation? As you say, some herbs are toxic - we need to make sure they are safe, but how do we do that if not by testing them properly? And if we don't test them, how do we know which ones are safe for different people? I just can't see that we can blindly trust that the manufacturers to know what they are doing.
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Posted by Jo
05 December 2011 | 23h37
What Does Codex Say?
Does this have anything to do with CODEX ALIMENTARIUS and their stand on nutritional suppliments in Europe & the rest of the world?
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Posted by Laurel Marshall
02 December 2011 | 16h18
Herbs as food / drugs ?
We need to define a herbal medicine. My problem is the word medicine ..this is a medical word. Standardized extracts in my opinion should be regulated as drugs. There should have to be clinical trials to prove and one compound or more compounds exaggerated. They are no longer as found in nature. Clinical trials should be required to prove safety at least. The full matrix and integrity of the herb is no longer present. It is no longer what it was!
Some herbs of course are toxic by nature and obviously should be identified and regulated. Common herbs that have been used for hundreds if not thousands of years that we use for relief of minor conditions (no they are not diseases as teas, and that have used for culinary purposes should be left in the food category to be used as we wish. this is a slippery slope .. where does food end and medicine start!
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Posted by Suzanne Stoeckle
01 December 2011 | 03h25
Why Talk At All
Why is anyone talking about herbs other than people growing them and people eating them. There herbs, plants. It's nobody's business what people do with them. That includes all the Dr's involved and the governments of the world. It's truly not anybody's business but mine what plants I eat and why I eat them. We have become a rediculous people.
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Posted by Doug Wilson
01 December 2011 | 02h14
What to expect from industry
Typical industry response. Attack the person, don't discuss the facts.
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Posted by Rexy
29 November 2011 | 22h36
My Heart Bleeds
Now is she trying to get us to feel sorry for her the content of her letter says it all......
So why should we be apologising and when it comes down to Shock, Horror all I can say is get a life you must have read a totally different letter to the one published.
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Posted by Brad
29 November 2011 | 12h33
response to article
I just say 'Man up..'
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Posted by nyxs60
23 November 2011 | 10h16
Shock,Horror!
If the public attack by ANH on Liz Williamson isn't personal, it would be useful to know what is!
What can the ANH be thinking about to engage in an attack on Professor Liz Williamson? It is abhorrent to anyone who knows anything about Liz or her work in Herbal Medicine, which has been of immense value to all of us with an interest in Plant drugs and their safe use for self medication.
As for her supposed links with pharmaceutical companies, I can say that as a very small totally independent herbal medicine manufacturer who have admired her work and sought her freely given advice over many years and, the idea that her interest is anything other than academic is insulting.
I can quite understand why she is devastated by the unwarranted, personal attack. I would like to put on record that as a "very small, totally independent business, without backing or patronage from any major organisation or pharmaceutical company of any sort, nor any axe to grind", we absolutely agree with the content of Liz's leaked letter to Andrew Lansley.
Along with other serious players involved in Herbal medicine, I am horrified by the very public attack on Liz Williamson.
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Posted by June Crisp
22 November 2011 | 14h51
Please don't lose sleep, Prof Williamson
We are sorry that Prof Williamson has chosen to take this personally, but she hasn't been attacked! Her ideas written in a letter have however been contested. But this is not about her, us or any of the people in the herbal sector. It is about the fundamental way in which foods and medicines are treated by regulators in the UK and Europe more generally. The implications for consumers of a government, such as the UK, following the advice given by Prof Williamson, are huge. Prof Williamson has previously published important papers showing how dietary components and food supplements can have therapeutic properties (e.g. Phytother Res. 2007; 21(2): 99-112) - now she implies, through her letter, that these same products should be removed from the market unless they are authorised successfully as drugs (under the THMPD scheme, which guarantees neither safety nor efficacy, or using the 'well established use' or full marketing authorisation routes). The sheer cost and practicalities of this mean that the vast majority would be lost from the market. Polyherbal products would be the most severely affected, yet these are the ones with the strongest evidence of benefit, particularly from non-European traditions. I am at a loss as to why Prof Williamson doesn't simply justify her position, rather than losing sleep.
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Posted by Robert Verkerk
21 November 2011 | 17h30
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