According to a news report in the BMJ, the General Pharmaceutical Council of Great Britain has dropped cases against three pharmacies offering homoeopathic remedies for malaria prophylaxis, after the pharmacists took “remedial action.”
The cases were brought after a joint investigation in 2006 by Sense About Science, a charity that promotes evidence based science, and Newsnight. The investigation showed that the first 10 homoeopathic clinics and pharmacies selected from an internet search recommended homoeopathic pills to a researcher who said she was travelling to countries where malaria is endemic, instead of referring her to a GP or conventional travel clinic. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and the General Pharmaceutical Council said in a statement that it had carried out a detailed investigation of the complaints, and “in all three cases remedial action was taken” and it “did not believe that pursuing these particular cases further would establish or clarify any significant points of generally principle.”
The managing director of Sense About Science warned, “The General Pharmaceutical Council’s decision not to take any action against pharmacies who have been offering travellers homoeopathic alternatives to antimalarial medicine, after four years of delay, is downright shabby and irresponsible.” The council said in a letter to Sense about Science that “If the case was presented before the council as a new matter, it would fall below the current threshold criteria for referral to the Investigating Committee.” The charity pointed out these criteria include being “reckless with the safety and wellbeing of others.”
A recent Newsnight investigation revealed that one of the pharmacies in the case, had issued a leaflet in 2010 advertising its homoeopathic remedies for serious diseases and claiming anecdotal evidence that they are successful treatments.
The author of a personal view article in the BMJ asks why pharmacists sell homoeopathic remedies, stating that “pharmacists who sell homoeopathic products need to do a little soul searching. I know we all have to earn our crust, but it shocks me that a little box of “sucrose/lactose pillules” can be passed off as a “medicinal product.” He is sending a copy of Nelson’s Homeopathy Factfile to the General Pharmaceutical Council and the Advertising Standards Authority, but adds “I don’t expect that the spineless council will do much. We’ll see if the ASA thinks that these claims are “legal, decent, honest, and truthful….Perhaps it’s not much worse than flogging ineffective cough medicines…”