Traditional Chinese medicine must face same regulations as Western methods, European doctors demand
- Despite recognition from World Health Organisation, TCM not automatically safe without ‘robust evidence’, statement from top medical and scientific bodies says
- China’s Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2015, giving boost to credibility of TCM, which many in West deride as verging on quackery
Top European medical bodies demanded on Thursday that Chinese traditional medicines be subject to the same regulatory oversight as conventional Western methods, despite recent WHO recognition of their use.
“Just because the World Health Organisation includes a chapter on traditional Chinese medicine in its new International Classification of Diseases, it is not automatically safe to use without robust evidence,” Professor Dan Marhala, president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said in a statement issued by top European medical and scientific bodies.
The European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) and the Federation of European Academies of Medicine (FEAM) said European lawmakers must protect the health of European citizens.
Accordingly, the existing European regulatory framework should be revised to make sure traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is held to the same standards of proof and evidence as conventional medicine.
“There have been examples where some traditional Chinese medicine has undergone thorough preclinical investigation and proven in rigorous clinical trials to contribute significant health benefit – artemisinin therapy for malaria, for example,” Marhala said.
“There may be more leads to diagnosis and therapeutic benefit yet to be discovered but this can in no way mean that other claims can be accepted uncritically.”