US weighs crackdown on homeopathic remedies over 'significant safety issues'
Source: The Guardian
US weighs crackdown on homeopathic remedies over 'significant safety issues'
Rory Carroll in Los Angeles
Tuesday 21 April 2015 13.57 BST
Sceptics consider homeopathy a joke, a bogus science that belongs in a punchline, not a pharmacy but US government regulators are suddenly taking it seriously.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is holding public hearings this week to explore whether it should toughen oversight of what has become a controversial, billion-dollar branch of the healthcare industry.
Critics have long called for greater scrutiny and regulation of homeopathic remedies that make bold healing claims and and fill pharmacy shelves alongside conventional drugs.
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The FDA invited consumers, patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals and industry groups, among others, to make oral and written submissions about the current use of human drug and biological products labeled as homeopathic, as well as the agencys regulatory framework for such products.
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Read more:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/21/fda-homeopathic-remedies-regulation-hearings