First approved Chinese herbal cure to hit British high
street
Andrew Ward, Pharmaceuticals
Correspondent
An Oxford-based biotech company is
preparing to launch the first traditional Chinese medicine which has approval
from the UK drugs regulator in a breakthrough for a type of therapy long
consigned to the margins of western healthcare.
Phynova will sell its herbal remedy
for joint and muscle pain on British high streets through the Holland &
Barrett chain of health stores from next month. It is also in discussions with
mainstream chemists such as Boots.
The product, approved by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare
Products Regulatory Agency in March, is the first to be given the green light
under EU rules requiring herbal medicines to be licensed.
Such therapies are not subjected to
the rigorous clinical trials required of pharmaceuticals,
but regulators must be shown evidence that a product has been used safely for
at least 30 years to secure a licence.
This might not sound like much of a
hurdle considering that many Chinese medicines have been in use for thousands
of years. But Phynova is the only company so far to have compiled a
sufficiently robust safety dossier to win UK regulatory clearance since the
rules came into force in 2011.
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