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doi:10.1136/bmj.b2332

Published 9 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2332
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2332

Letters

Homoeopathic product licence

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The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

It is tragic that we now have a respected body, the Medicinesand Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), granting alicence for a product for which there is not only no evidenceof efficacy but good evidence against any efficacy.¹ I havesome sympathy with the MHRA in the face of a European Directivewhich has to be obeyed but which is almost totally irrational.However, I think that because "efficacy" appears in the directiveand there is evidence against efficacy, it could have resistedgranting a licence.

This fiasco takes us back to the days before drug regulationwas introduced, partly to prevent the hazards of snake oil-typeremedies. While this product may have no benefit, it probablyhas no direct harm either. But it may have major indirect harms—notonly in individual patients who may not benefit from other effectiveremedies but also in a general sense by . . . [Full text of this article]

Stephen J Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology¹

¹ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT

stephen.evans@lshtm.ac.uk