Brian O'Shea
Ceist:201 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Health and Children his response, if any, to the ruling on St. John's Wort of the United Kingdom Committee on Safety of Medicines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8542/00]
Written Answers. - Herbal Products.
The Irish Medicines Board is responsible for the licensing of medicinal products, including herbal medicinal products, in this country. In 1999, following an assessment of an application for a product authorisation, the IMB recommended to my Department that products containing St. John's Wort should be subject to prescription-only control in view of the public health concerns it had identified in connection with this herbal medicinal product. Since then, a number of other national regulatory authorities have also issued warnings in regard to these products, including the food and drugs administration in the United States, the European medicines evaluation agency of the European Union, and the medicines control agency in the United Kingdom, which recently published its concerns regarding the potential of St. John's Wort to interact with other commonly prescribed medicines. The Irish Medicines Board is the expert authority in this regard in this country and it has advised my Department that there are no grounds for altering its original recommendation to confine St. John's Wort to prescription-only control.