Herbal industry under threat

HIDDEN AGENDA

Herbal industry under threat

By Mary Ann Ll. Reyes

Various groups are now up in arms against a campaign being waged by a pharmaceutical giant to kill the pro-poor local herbal industry, whose exports contribute billions of pesos to the economy every year.

They believe that such campaign is an affront to the state policy of providing health care services to the Filipino people through the development of traditional and alternative health care.

They claim that the pharma giant, in its drive for higher profit and protect its synthetic cough drug, has been funding a tri-media and PR campaign to link herbal medicines and food supplements with bacteria, a claim premised on an erroneous interpretation of scientific facts and without scientific basis.

Republic Act No. 8423 or the Traditional Alternative Medicine Act (TAMA) law, authored by Senator Edgardo Angara and signed into law by former President Ramos on December 9, 1997, does not only protect the herbal industry but also promotes its use and development.

The government has made it a policy to develop the herbal industry to reduce the country’s reliance on imported synthetic drugs and provide poor Filipinos access to affordable yet effective products from natural source including food supplements, cosmetics, herbal medicines and therapeutic drugs.

No less than the Department of Health has in fact identified 10 medicinal plants that were registered with the Philippine National Drug Formulary (PNDF). These are lagundi (for asthma, cough, fever), ulasimang bato(uric acid), bawang (high blood pressure), bayabas (diarrhea), akapulko(fungal infections), sambong (renal stones), ampalaya (high blood sugar),yerba buena (pain), niyog-niyogan (intestinal worms), and tsaang gubat(tooth decay).

These are being propagated by the government to provide cures to the common ailments in the country and generate jobs for farmers, manufacturers, distributors, entrepreneurs and exporters who depend on the local herbal industry.

The propaganda of the pharma giant also threatens to undo and ruin decades of scientific research undertaken by the scientific community on medicinal plants, including those made by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the National Integrated Research Program on Medicinal Plants (NIRPROMP), and the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC).

Republic Act No. 7394 or the Consumer Act of the Philippines acknowledges herbal plant as a legitimate drug. The law clearly states that the term “drug” shall include herbal and/or traditional drug, which are recognized in the Philippine National Formulary and intended for use in the treatment or cure, mitigation of disease symptoms, injury or bodily defect for use in man.

Clinical tests will bear out the fact that reputable brands of herbal remedies have bacterial content well within - and even below - the microbial limits set by DOH-FDA, and as such are not harmful when consumed. To claim otherwise, while not citing relevant facts and details regarding lab tests that supposedly prove it, is purely irresponsible behavior, consumer groups point out.

It should be pointed out that the Department of Labor and Employment also encourages the development of herbal medicine as a livelihood for the Filipino people. In its Balik-Pinay Balik Hanap-buhay Program, the agency encourages returning overseas Filipino workers to start a home-based business such as reflexology; cosmetology; and production of bath soap, scented oils, herbal medication, and skin health treatment.

The government should therefore stop attempts to destroy and malign the local herbal industry. Moreover, it should encourage industry cooperation and consultation among farmers, manufacturers, distributors and the scientific community in defending and promoting the herbal industry for the greater good of the Filipino people in terms of healthcare and employment.

FDA should focus on drug imports

Speaking of drugs, our very own Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should see to it that drugs that enter the country are checked every now and then since there are times when what traders initially submit to the FDA are not what are really imported.

The FDA has been taken to task for its focus on small and worse, trivial matters such as whether boticas or drugstores sell drugs sans the prescription sheets in the process neglecting far more important tasks such as regulating the entry of imported drugs.

Consumer advocates have scored the FDA’s lack of consistency in its policies since it does not look after the quality and efficacy of the drugs that enter the country.

Expressing concern over recent news reports emanating from Lahore, Pakistan, where hundreds died and more were taken to hospitals after having taken cardiovascular drugs, the consumer group urged the FDA to be aware of the dangers posed by drugs manufactured abroad that do not go through stringent quality control.

News reports from Pakistan revealed that these people died or became ill after taking medicines for various cardiovascular concerns. The drugs were later found to be dangerous when ingested as what had happened last month.

The seeming lack of focus of the FDA brings to the fore the problems that beset the pharmaceutical industry in the country.

It seems that substandard drugs as well as drugs that do not match with what the traders declare are able to enter the unregulated and without having to undergo quality control tests.

Failure to subject the said drugs to tests for their efficacy and quality could mean a big number of deaths as what happened in Lahore, Pakistan, consumer groups warned.

The failure of the FDA to subject the drugs to quality standard tests means that some of the drugs that are imported into the country have not been thoroughly screened. These drugs are able to reach the counters without government having determined first whether or not these were manufactured under strict standards.

The FDA, unlike other drug regulatory authorities in other countries, does not even audit drug manufacturers. This means they do not even know if a drug was properly manufactured or just produced by a company in its backyard. In contrast, most authorities, including those in African countries, audit foreign plants. This is embarrassing and negligent on the part of our FDA, to say the least.

Sadly, our FDA is concentrating its firepower on the small boticas and drugstores, even though much more pressing concerns are not given the scrutiny they require.

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