The Taiwan Pharmacist Association and the Pharmacist Association of the ROC (Republic of China) yesterday protested against a Ministry of Health and Welfare proposal that would allow licensed Chinese herbal remedy dealers to prescribe certain types of medication.
Last month, the ministry announced plans to amend the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法) so that Chinese herbal remedy dealers would not be able to prescribe medication nor produce herbal pills, powders, creams or extracts.
In addition, the amendment would require them to acquire a “Chinese herbal medicine management technician” license to import and sell herbal medicines, but they would still not be allowed to prescribe or produce drugs.
The proposal invoked protests from Chinese herbal remedy dealers, who say that the ministry is depriving them of their rights and threatening the end of the traditional industry.
After hundreds of dealers protested in front of the ministry on Nov. 7, the ministry modified its policy to allow dealers with Chinese herbal medicine management technician licenses to prescribe or produce drugs.
However, more than 100 pharmacists protested in Taipei yesterday, voicing their discontent over the ministry’s new licensing system.
Holding signs with slogans such as “herbal medicine licenses easily given out will endanger the public,” “loosened herbal medicine regulation is unsafe” and “trampling over the profession will harm the public,” the pharmacist associations said allowing dealers to become technicians who are allowed to directly prescribe and produce medication violates pharmacists’ rights.
Taiwan Pharmacist Association spokesperson Shen Tsai-ying (沈采穎) said herbal remedy sellers handle business activity, but prescribing and producing medication needs professional pharmaceutical skills, and the two activities should not be conflated.
She said only about 1 percent of Taiwanese take traditional medicine exclusively, meaning that the other 99 percent might take a mixture of both traditional and Western medicine, but herbal remedy dealers might not be aware of possible drug interactions that could harm consumers.
The association is planning to increase the proportion of herbal medicine in the national pharmacist licensure examination and also increase the required courses of herbal medicine prescription for pharmacists, Shen said.
The ministry said it plans to allow dealers who are familiar with herbal remedies to gain professional licenses and prescribe non-therapeutic medications and health supplements, adding that therapeutic medication should be prescribed by pharmacists, but it would continue to communicate with the industries.
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