Help us support our allies in an effort to stop the FDA’s attack on this safe, natural form of medicine. Action Alert!
Our friends at Americans for Homeopathy Choice have submitted a Citizens Petition to the FDA requesting that the agency reverse its recent actions with regard to homeopathic medicine. Upending decades of safe regulation, in 2018 the FDA released a draft guidance that essentially stated that all homeopathic drugs are illegal. We cannot let this attack against this safe and effective form of medicine go unchecked.
Recall that the FDA’s guidance document, which lays out the agency’s current position on the regulation of homeopathic drugs, says:
- Any homeopathic drug that has not been considered “generally recognized as safe and effective” (GRAS/E) is considered a new drug;
- FDA has not determined that any homeopathic drugs are GRAS/E;
- A new drug cannot be marketed unless it goes through the FDA’s approval process;
- No homeopathic drugs have gone through FDA approval nor can any producer afford to take them through the approval process.
The guidance also explains that, while all homeopathic drugs are illegal, the FDA will apply a risk-based enforcement approach. The agency has already begun to apply this doctrine; earlier this year the agency attacked manufacturers of injectable homeopathic medicines.
In our coverage of this recent attack, we pointed out that there is in fact no safety issue with homeopathic medicines, which have a sterling record of safety. A review of the evidence of adverse events related to homeopathy, which included data from 12 European countries, the US, Mexico, India, Israel and Brazil published between 1978 and 2010, found a total of just 1,159 adverse events. This equates to an average of just over 50 cases per annum across all 17 countries from which studies were conducted. By comparison, foodborne illness contributes to on average of 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths annually in the US alone. Worldwide, an estimated 200 million people use homeopathy regularly, including 6 million in the United States. These data show that adverse events from homeopathic medicines occur at a very, very low rate.
So why go after homeopathic medicines? The FDA gets a large part of its funding from drug company user fees, and for this reason sees Big Pharma as its client. Homeopathic medicines, like supplements and other natural products, compete with pharmaceutical drugs, so the FDA uses its enormous power to tilt the scales in favor of the drug companies. And because natural products and homeopathic medicines generally cannot be patent-protected like drugs can, they can’t afford FDA-approval and so cannot make disease claims. It is one of many ways cronyism is undermining healthcare in this country.
Sign our petition below to reform American healthcare. In addition, go to Americans for Homeopathy Choice’s website to submit a comment in support of their Citizens Petition.
Action Alert! Sign our petition to reform our healthcare system that bars and undermines natural options like homeopathic medicine. Please sign our petition immediately.
Must save from these people who only want us on drugs that they inflate the pricing to enrich themselves
Give us the alternative let us make the choice
Protect citizens rights to choose
I have been using homeopathic supplements and essential oil’s for years. I depend on them. They keep me well and if I do get ill, they make me well. And with no side effects like drugs have!
Homeopathy is pseudoscience. Placebo effect. Co$tly.
I am taking two homeopathic pills that have kept me alive for the last twenty years. They are reliable, inexpensive and absolutely essential. If they are removed from the market it will mean dreadful pain for me and a terrible death.
Preserve my and my family’s right to use homeopathic supplements.
Reform our healthcare system that bars and undermines natural options like homeopathic medicine.
Homeopathy is a healthcare alternative that people can afford.
Our creators remedy for everything was here before any artificial drug. Lets keep His remedy available for those who choose to use them rather than damaging drugs!
Stop the pharmaceutical grab on natural herbs and vitamins – this is outrageous!
Please don’t make us rely on big pharma and let us have a say in what goes into our own bodies! This is still America!
Homeopathy is the way to go. It is preventative instead of masking… Big Pharma is just a bunch of poison in my opinion and makes people sicker… No way…!!
Stop backing big pharma! Don’t make natural medicines illegal. All that does is allow big pharma to have the market cornered and charge huge amounts of money for what, as natural meds, are much cheaper.
We need homeopathy now!!
we know it works–besides I would not have to sign this if it didn’t work—
big pharma doesn’t like it
I rely on homeopathy for my best health.
Homeopathic supplements don’t put money in your pocket, do they?
Big Farma would kill you if you let them. So they make money while keeping you sick.
Homeopathy has a long history of helping people heal. The status quo (conventional medicine) almost destroyed it in the early 1900’s, but it remains one of the most healing modalities that we have. Why? Because it works and often helps people who have had no success in healing with conventional medical treatment. The FDA needs to serve the People, not the pharmaceutical industry and conventional medicine. They have quite enough power. We know what healing is for our bodies and minds. We know the value of homeopathy. There is room for all types of healing in this nation. I hope the powers that be come to understand that or we will have to put more pressure on them. This is a free country and will remain so.
There is room in modern medicine for alternative therapies!
This is a step backward–Please reconsider.
We don’t need anymore Big Pharma to tell us what we can and cannot do. Leave my choice of care to me!
Everyone should be allowed to choose their own path to wellness!
Please keep supplements and homeopathy safe and legal. I use them on a daily basis.
Please ! Just because You Don’t Understand it & it’s Not from Big Pharma, Don’t take this Healing Adjunct Away from All the People That it Does Help & keep them from dangerous side effects & Financial Burden for themselves…It’s America, Land of Free Choice : ) !!! I Hope, Still…
Homeopathy is a farce and it’s about time the FDA treated it as such.
Support Homeopathy
I would really like to have an alternative to regular allopathic medicine, I think it is past time to allow people a choice of natural medicines as well, in luding homeopathy, integrative, functional, and acupuncture. They should all be covered by medical insurance because they work!! The people of Switzerland ALL use homeopathy.
Homeopathy is a valuable venue in our natural health care and should be accepted as a viable healthcare form of treatment. Natural health care is not new! It has existed for centuries and often is the basis of the drugs we use today. Many people can benefit from a more gentle yet powerful use of homeopathy, herbs and various types of healthcare healing tools known as “natural.” We should create a path of wellness within our health system for natural healing to be known and accepted.
This is one of the healing methods that some people use and it shouldn’t be taken away.
I am a strong supporter of the Democratic party and of President Elect Joe Biden, however, I must register my protest to the naming of Dr. Kessler to the co-chairmanship of the COVID-19 task force. It is foolish to turn a blind eye on the efficacy of proven effective natural supplements and remedies. I am a healthy eighty-one year-old who has studied extensively and relied upon natural remedies and supplements to maintain my health as well as on standard pharmaceuticals for most of my life. Our country is way behind many of our allies who are not tied to political interests when these matters are addressed.
It is a facr that there are many charlatans and idiots such as the Trumpeter who tout bizarre, unproven remedies, however it is foolish to throw out the remedies that have been proven to be beneficial.
I had planned to leave the country if Trump were re-elected and so glad not to have to take that drastic step. Now, I have to contemplate a need to move from this country if this first step by President Biden turns out to be indicative of the administration’s position being under the thumb of the pharmaceutical industry.
Homeopathy is working for centuries. Big Pharma does not want competitors.
We have utilized classical homeopathy in our family for 35 years will NO ill-effects, and good positive effects.
The FDA is corrupt and should not venture any sort of opinion against homeopathic medicine.
Clearly the evidence, scientific facts and stats written above show there is no reason that homeopathic remedies should be restricted or banned other than one that is impacted by a greedy desire to exploit people with harmful, addictive medications that remain unrestricted despite being most harmful and ineffective. Because if there were any real concern for human welfare there would instead be more safety regulations imposed on the food distribution sources whereby such high numbers of foodborne illnesses and fatalities also referred to in the statement stem from. We are not subjects to be exploited by some well to do cronies able to influence outcomes about things like this for personal gain nor will we settle for it. Natural remedies are best and everyone with any sense knows it. Anyone who claims not to know this apparent fact is the one whose integrity is in question.
Please reverse this unwarranted constriction on homeopathic remedies and supplements. Many people cannot take the chemical concoctions of pharmaceutical companies, and have long relied on the safe and effective method of homeopathic healing.
Homeopathy has a successful record for centuries and milleniums (millennia) as a viable source for natural healing.
The current economic and political strength of current pharmacology must NOT influence the long proven success of natural remedies. In a late time of salvagable planetary sustainability, re-focus on the natural is increasingly important and requires re-evaluation of political and economic powers.
Please re-consider the natural world and its course for the salvation of the planet, currenrly on a course for extinction of mankind.
I don’t care what you officially think about homeopathy that has proven successful throughout the last century, but I care very much about MY freedom to choose what I want for MY body. If you think that by blacklisting homeopathic remedies I will be forced to purchase pharma you are sorely mistaken. I also don’t think previous generations fought in vain for various freedoms for a Fascist regime to dump us back into the Serfdom of the Middle Ages or slave driving with a false smile. You have learned to perfect propaganda but still need to CENSOR all the time: what does that say?
Reform our healthcare system that bars and undermines natural options like homeopathic medicine.
It’s our right to select drug free approaches to illness, and alternative medicine serves this purpose. Having a choice regarding our health is our right, not the pharmaceutical companies having the monopoly.
Please do nothing to limit homeopathic remedies.They cannot be tested scientifically because they work different from normal medicines. In India more people take homeopathic remedies than normal medicines with much success. They are connected with the Hindu religion but I am no Hindu
I had my last flu shot in 1997 and will never have another one regardless of what you do. I take influenzinum 9C once every eight days for 5 weeks and then once every month thereafter and have only had two very mild cases of the flu thereafter which I treated homeopathically by taking the remedy 3 times a day until the flu left me. While on homeopathy I cannot have anything with mint because mint is considered a strong flavor and which will nullify the results of many homeopathic remedies which is why many people do not have success. The M. D. who introduced me to homeopathy worked in an emergency room where he saw regular medicines fail because of interactions with the medicines people were already on so he quit regular medicine to practice homeopathy as a Medical Doctor. Unfortunately he moved to California so I am on my own now.
This is a method for healing and prevention, let’s not cut this off from people. Please continue to allow for choice. So far, have we heard of cases of Homeopathy that causes intense addiction that leads to meth and heroin use (and death?)? But yet, pharmaceuticals are sold freely. Interesting dynamic..
Our friends at Americans for Homeopathy Choice have submitted a Citizens Petition to the FDA requesting that the agency reverse its recent actions with regard to homeopathic medicine. Upending decades of safe regulation, in 2018 the FDA released a draft guidance that essentially stated that all homeopathic drugs are illegal. We cannot let this attack against this safe and effective form of medicine go unchecked.
Recall that the FDA’s guidance document, which lays out the agency’s current position on the regulation of homeopathic drugs, says:
Any homeopathic drug that has not been considered “generally recognized as safe and effective” (GRAS/E) is considered a new drug;
FDA has not determined that any homeopathic drugs are GRAS/E;
A new drug cannot be marketed unless it goes through the FDA’s approval process;
No homeopathic drugs have gone through FDA approval nor can any producer afford to take them through the approval process.
The guidance also explains that, while all homeopathic drugs are illegal, the FDA will apply a risk-based enforcement approach. The agency has already begun to apply this doctrine; earlier this year the agency attacked manufacturers of injectable homeopathic medicines.
In our coverage of this recent attack, we pointed out that there is in fact no safety issue with homeopathic medicines, which have a sterling record of safety. A review of the evidence of adverse events related to homeopathy, which included data from 12 European countries, the US, Mexico, India, Israel and Brazil published between 1978 and 2010, found a total of just 1,159 adverse events. This equates to an average of just over 50 cases per annum across all 17 countries from which studies were conducted. By comparison, foodborne illness contributes to on average of 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths annually in the US alone. Worldwide, an estimated 200 million people use homeopathy regularly, including 6 million in the United States. These data show that adverse events from homeopathic medicines occur at a very, very low rate.
So why go after homeopathic medicines? The FDA gets a large part of its funding from drug company user fees, and for this reason sees Big Pharma as its client. Homeopathic medicines, like supplements and other natural products, compete with pharmaceutical drugs, so the FDA uses its enormous power to tilt the scales in favor of the drug companies. And because natural products and homeopathic medicines generally cannot be patent-protected like drugs can, they can’t afford FDA-approval and so cannot make disease claims. It is one of many ways cronyism is undermining healthcare in this country.
Don’t take away more of our rights to choose effective and safe health care. Do not ban homeopathic remedies.
All drugs are poison but some natural things can be used to great benefit.
The FDA is in Big Pharma’s pocket.
Please, keep centuries-old homeopathic practices available to the people that want to use them. They cause no harm as proven over time, and people that seek these rememdies and have found them useful rely on their availability to improve their quality of life. No one is forced to use homeopathy, but it should be an option for people. Many have found it useful when other forms of medicine have failed them.
Natural health care is a human right!!
Stop pandering to Big Pharma or you’ll
be getting a taste of your own medicine
from the American people!
I can’t take rx’s because of the ingredients ( allergies to many things) I need naturals
This is just yet another way Americans are not free! We need medical freedom! It is very much tied in with freedom of religion. We are being dominated by a system that cares nothing for our health, and wants to treat the human population like a factory farm, with subpar nutrition and rampant disease poorly controlled with modern medicines. I hope our sick society will heal. It starts with freedom to choose our way of healthcare. Let the people have homeopathy!
Homeopathy has never hurt me, only helped. And I have used it for years for a multitude of ailments. Pharmaceutical drugs are not always the answer, as the side effects are oftentimes worse than the ailment itself. It’s important to have homeopic alternatives.
We need to reform our healthcare system to allow we the people more choices in how we take care of ourselves. Stop pandering to Big Pharma and stop going after Homeopathic medicines. I agree with this petition and am hoping for change for the good. Not the bending to the will of Big Pharma.
save homeopathy!
Homeopathy has been safely used for thousands of years. It can often be the only safe form of therapeutic intervention to some very sick or sensitive people. These new regulations could make it much more difficult and expensive for those who need them.
I have been using Homeopathic remedies for decades. My family relies on these non-expensive remedies. They are safe and effective and used world wide. They are used widely by the Royal Family, especially HM the Queen Elisabeth.
There have never been any adverse reactions from these natural remedies.
I don’t appreciate my health freedoms taken away. I understand you are loyal to the pharmaceutical companies and they control you because that is where you get your funding from.
It’s amazing how many thousands of Americans DIE each year from FDA approved drugs and procedures, yet we don’t see FDA banning those drugs or procedures.
This is an outrage and so un-American.
I have a right to use what ever type of natural remedies that i choose for myself and my family.
You have sold your souls to the devil. How do you sleep at night?
I use homeopathic remedies to safely and inexpensively help me stay healthy, especially Arnica to relieve muscle aches.