Why Aren’t Herbs Prescription Drugs?
If herbs are so great, and they work so well, then why aren’t more herbs sold through pharmacies as prescription drugs?
This is a really good question which I will begin to answer in this article.
The science of herbal medicine
We’ve come a long way over the past several thousand let alone one-hundred years in herbal medicine. While botanical and conventional medicines still have a long way to go to become fully integrated with each other, the road to cooperation between the two has already started.
In fact, today, we are witnessing one of the most significant transformations in health care: a paradigm shift characterized by an increasingly scientific perspective of health that includes more holistic approaches. Physicians, nutritionists, and scientists are becoming very open-minded and recognize the validity of scientific evidence that supports natural medicine. This is a very different situation from only 25 years ago where natural medicine was summarily dismissed as a viable treatment option. But today, from one scientific journal to another, new discoveries are being made about natural foods and medicines and that’s exciting!
It is becoming more accepted
Herbal medicine and other alternative therapies, more accepted in conventional medical circles as of late, are becoming recognized as viable alternatives to orthodox medicine for several reasons. First, they can offer distinct advantages in dealing with ailments that standard medicine may be ineffective in treating. Second, they often lack the serious side effects so common with many prescription drugs. Third, they tend to support rather than interfere with the body's normal healing process. For these reasons and many more physicians and patients alike are frequently combining natural and conventional approaches to create a more successful and individualized program of treatment.
Pharmacognosy – say that 5 times fast!
To explain developments in the field of botanical medicine today, a brief discussion of pharmacognosy is necessary. You may be familiar with this terms since it is sometimes used in health magazines and in the naturopathic health industry.
Pharmacognosy, the study of natural drugs and their constituents, plays a major role in the development of prescription drugs. If a medicinal compound derived from a plant is strong enough, an interested drug company will seek approval from the United states Food and Drug administration (FDA) to market the drug.
Approval from the FDA
Seeking approval from the FDA is a long and arduous process, to say the least. I have been a part of several commercial development teams within the pharmaceutical world – and the job is not for the faint of heart! It takes a lot of resources, time, approximately 10 years, and over $200 million to license a plant-based drug.
In addition, the FDA requires the same absolute proof for herbs as it does for new synthetic drugs. This policy might seem unfair and not make a whole lot of sense to some persons. Because herbs and synthetic drugs differ in their chemical constituents and mechanisms of action, it is argued that they should not be evaluated according to the same guidelines. This is why we see that herbal remedies are mostly marketed as herbal dietary supplements in the US. Their manufacturers are generally allowed to make only acute health claims on their behalf.
Herbs have limited patent possibilities
One of the problems facing the serious research of botanical medicine is the limited past possibilities. A patent only grants the right to exclude others from making, using, or offering for sale the particular product. By their very nature, most herbal products cannot be patented. However, plant chemicals may be successfully synthesized to mimic their natural compounds and thus be awarded a patent period. Since plants are not allowed to be patented, there is little incentive for American pharmaceutical companies to perform research on common and widely available herbs.