Inventors of herbal meds craft document to standardize practice

DAVAO CITY – A group of inventors and distributors of known herbal medicines are crafting a document that would form the standardized practice in developing new products and marketing them in various media forms, an executive of the group said.

The group has been meeting since August this year when they formed the Philippine Society of Traditional and Alternative Medicine Inc. (PSTAMI) here, said Edgar Delibo, the adhoc president.

Incidentally, said Delibo, many of the major herbal medicines commercially marketed and widely adevertised were developed here or elsewhere in Mindanao, or owned and distributed by their own inventors.

The PSTAMI would like to enforce standard, from developing and testing of the product, to the manufacturing and labelling of the product. “We would like to protect all those engaged in traditional and alternative medicine, as well as the consumers and end-users of the products that we develop and commercialize,” Delibo said.

Production and commercial distribution of herbal medicines is covered under Republic Act 8423, or the the Traditional and Alternative Medicines Act of 1997 but he said that 12 years later “the law has not been adequately implemented”.

Delibo has developed medicines and food supplements to treat various ailments including glaucoma and dengue and has been developing lately a concoction to treat hypertension and stroke which is in its two years of clinical and field testing conducted by various hospitals and monitored by government agencies.

He said that his members professing similar intention include the inventors, distributors and manufacturers of known products such as the MX3, which was developed here, the MI capsule and the Nanz herbal capsule.

There were 20 of them so far, “but we are tapping all the rest in the country to subscribe to our goal”. “The minimum intention is for the manufacturers and distributors to follow the manufacturing and labelling standard and for developers of the product to apply the modalities of testing and handling.”

The group's goal was backed by the Food and Drugs Administration, formerly the Bureau of Food and Drugs which he said would ensure the product quality and safety, and the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCCII).

“We would like to ensure the truthfulness and reliability of the products as they are advertized,” he said. “We would discourage the testimonial type of advertising because testimonies can be faked and there are a lot of people who are complaining that the products they bought were not effective and have caused harm instead,” he added.

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