Pharmacy and Poisons Board

Request for stakeholder input on Guideline for Herbal and Complementary Medicine.

Letter

Guidelines for Herbal and Complementary Medicines

This guideline presents a common format for presentation of a well-structured application for registration of herbal/complementary medicines to be submitted to Pharmacy and Poisons Board. This format of technical documentation will significantly reduce the time and resources needed to compile applications for registration of herbal and complementary products and will in future ease the preparation of electronic submissions. Evaluation of dossiers and communication with the applicants will be facilitated by a standard document of common elements. This guideline will ensure that only good quality, safe and efficacious herbal and complementary products are available in Kenya; and to contribute towards their accessibility, cost effectiveness and appropriate use with the current state of knowledge. This guideline has been drawn to address the many issues on the quality of herbal and complementary medicines that have been used for a long period of time in Kenya. These issues include;
a) Misconception amongst herbalists that documentation requested for by PPB is intended to steal their indigenous knowledge and thus, there has been hesitation to submit applications.
b) Lack of documented evidence on quality, safety & efficacy of Herbal and complementary products
c) Unethical practices that include:

1. Adulteration of herbal and complementary products with conventional medicines
2. Advertising of Herbal and complementary products in print media, electronic and bill boards
3. Peddling of products with no therapeutic benefits
4. Unsubstantiated medicinal claims by herbal practitioners.
5. Dealing with herbal products whose toxicological profile is not known

d) Poor standards of preparation/manufacture and sale of herbal and complementary products. This guideline will focus on the manufacture, registration and marketing of herbal and complementary medicines.