KHOPOTSO: Some of the claims made to sell complementary medicines are that they can prevent cancer and boost libido. Others profess that they are effective in restoring an immune system depleted by AIDS. These claims are made notwithstanding the fact that the substances being promoted are foodstuffs which have not been medically and scientifically certified as medicine. Concerned by such misleading claims, the Health Products Association of South Africa set up a Self-Monitoring Technical Committee (SMTC) late last year. Mmathabo Kona, is Executive Director of the Health Products Association of South Africa.              

MMATHABO KONA: You find that someone says: ‘€œ(It) contains Vitamin C and it will boost your immune system’€ and it’€™s only about 2mg of Vitamin C. That’€™s so unethical and misleading’€¦ That is what the SMTC is involved with’€¦ You cannot make a disease-related claim unless you’€™ve gone through the three-year registration process with MCC’€¦ We basically make functional claims: ‘€œVitamin C assists with the immune system’€, not ‘€œthis product will cure pneumonia’€’€¦ If you see it out there, know that the HPA does not endorse such action.    

KHOPOTSO: Supporting Kona is Dr Alan Tomlinson, the HPA’€™s chairperson.

Dr ALAN TOMLINSON: We need to be very careful when we make pathological claims. In other words, when we make claims relating to pathologies such as HIV or cancer or any of those pathologies because you can’€™t take a food supplement and make a claim that it will cure HIV. First of all, it is an adjunctive substance. It is not a registered medicine. And it is only registered medicines in South Africa that have been registered against a specific pathology that can make claims relating to that pathology.  

KHOPOTSO: The Health Products Association represents more than 100 companies in the complementary medicines field. These include multivitamins, slimming products, and so on. The reason why some complementary medicine producers and promoters are able to make false claims about their products is simple. There are no regulations governing the market.

MMATHABO KONA: (The) current status on regulation (is) short and sweet. We don’€™t have regulations. HPA is in continuous interaction with the DoH… Obviously, if you have this setup you’€™re getting people taking advantage. There’€™s no law. They do what they want. They do their own thing. (There’€™s) no control.  

KHOPOTSO: Kona says it is in response to such behaviour that the Health Products Association established a Self-Monitoring Technical Committee.

MMATHABO KONA: The aim was to’€¦ reduce unethical behaviour, retain credibility with the public’€¦ surveillance ‘€“ to survey the market for defaulters’€¦ We survey various magazines and publications looking for CAMS products and seeing that the advertisements are not misleading or unethical in any way.      

KHOPOTSO: However, the monitoring tool on its own does not provide the association with teeth to bring offenders to book.

MMATHABO KONA: If the Advertising Standards Authority supports the concerns that we have and we’€™re not getting co-operation from a defaulting member of the industry, whether HPA or non-HPA member, then we take them to the ASA. The ASA has got the muscle to pull the advertising’€¦ The aim of the SMTC and the HPA as a whole is to promote and protect. We are not punitive in any way. We don’€™t name and shame.

KHOPOTSO: But it’€™s not all complementary medicine promoters who can afford to advertise in publications. Others run their businesses on the streets and from their homes, mostly in communities beset with health problems such as HIV, thus making monitoring virtually impossible. Dr Alan Tomlinson.

Dr ALAN TOMLINSON: That’€™s exactly correct. And that is why we are so anxious to have regulations in place. We have, for a long period of time now, been negotiating with the Department of Health because we want regulations. Regulations have to be there. When you’€™re dealing with a human’€™s health, and when you’€™re giving them oral substances, you have to be sure that they are safe, that they’€™ve been manufactured correctly and that they are efficacious, they really work. And so, we want regulations for that reason.  

KHOPOTSO: Efforts to get comment from the Department of Health have drawn a blank. In a press statement released last September, however, the Department said draft regulations for complementary medicines have been developed and published for comment and that these were being reviewed and were due to be considered by the department’€™s legal unit before being submitted to the Minister of Health. The statement also said that a Complementary Medicine Committee has been established within the Medicines Control Council and it was developing guidelines for registration and regulation of complementary medicines.