Background

    Following an article entitled "Death to Homoeopathy?", published in The Observer in July 1985, in which the legislative threat facing homoeopathic and herbal manufacturers was highlighted, hundreds of members of the public wrote in asking what they could do. In response to this considerable consumer concern about the future availability of natural medicines, The Natural Medicines Society was formed to represent the consumer voice for freedom of choice in medicine.

   By 1988 the Society had established its own expert committee (MARC) to advise government on medical and scientific issues relating to natural medicines and had secured the support of many Parliamentarians in both Houses, through Questions, Early Day Motions and Debates. This support continues to grow and the NMS has a representative on the Advisory Board of the Parliamentary Group for Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

   In 1990 a Draft of a European Directive for Homoeopathic Medicinal Products was issued. The NMS was very active in promoting support for this and to ensure that it provided safeguards for the practice of homoeopathic, anthroposophical and biochemic medicine throughout the Member States.

   A year later, following a presentation on the legislative issues to a large audience of parliamentarians, a major breakthrough was achieved when members of MARC gave a presentation on various aspects of natural medicines to the government body responsible for licensing medicines, the Medicines Control Agency (MCA). Finally the door we had been knocking on for so many years was open!

HOME