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Why pharmacists should not sell homeopathic medicines

Posted 27 July 2015

Mr Scott Gavura, a Canadian pharmacist, has written an article criticising Canadian pharmacists for stocking homeopathic medicines alongside conventional medicines.

We have a similar situation here in South Africa.

Mr Gavura ends his article with this powerful admonition: “Pharmacists ought to know better, and they ought to do better. It’s time for the profession to act in the interests of patients. Homeopathy has no place in today’s pharmacy practice.”

The same applies to South African pharmacists.

You can read the full article at: https://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2015/07/26/pharmacies-professionalism-and-homeopathy/

Mr Gavura also has a facebook page worth looking at: https://www.facebook.com/ScienceBasedPharmacy

It should be noted that in South Africa, according to the standards of “Good Pharmacy Practice” (GPP) published by the South African Pharmacy Council, pharmacists  “. . . must not purchase, sell or supply any medicinal product where the pharmacist has any reason to doubt its safety, quality or … Read the rest

July 27th, 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , | Category: homeopathy | One comment

Complaint to SAPC and HPCSA against Solal directors

Posted 07 January 2014

A formal complaint was laid on 25 June 2012 against the Solal pharmacists, Brent Murphy and David Arthur, and the Solal medical practitioner, Dr Craige Golding. To date (06 January 2014) no result has been received.

Below follows my complaint. Readers can decide whether the complaint has merit or not.

… Read the rest
January 7th, 2014 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: Solal | 79 comments

Pharmacist’s Code of Conduct

Posted 19 February 2013

I have been reminded that the South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC) states the following in their Code of Conduct:

[quote]A pharmacist must not give an impression to a potential purchaser that any product or food supplement associated with the maintenance of or enhancement of health is efficacious, when there is no evidence of efficacy, as confirmed by the registration with the Medicines Control Council.[/quote]

This is interesting for many scams are in fact being promoted or sold by health professionals, including pharmacists.

… Read the rest
February 18th, 2013 | Tags: , , | Category: Qualifications | 2 comments

Multiple organ failure – death of consumer protection?

“This hard-hitting commentary by Harris Steinman and Roy Jobson appears in the August 2010 South African Medical Journal (SAMJ).”

“Multiple organ failure has clearly resulted in an inability to efficiently clear or reject deleterious medicines and substances, resulting in financial and health trauma to consumers, with possible consequences including unnecessary deaths.”

… Read the rest
August 7th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , | Category: MCC (Medicines Control Council), SlimCoffee | Leave a comment

South African Pharmacy Council “dismisses complaint against” [absolves] substantiators

Posted 01 June 2010

In brief:

Complaint: Beverley Summers PhD erroneously substantiated Homemark products Peel Away the Pounds and Slim Coffee to the detriment of consumers.

Result: Complaint dismissed as the SAPC (a science-based statutory council) did not want to override any decision of the ASA (an industry-based, non-scientific, non-statutory “authority”). The SAPC erroneously refers to the Final Appeal Committee of the ASA as an “independent judicial tribunal” — possibly on the basis that Judge Mervyn King convenes the Final Appeal Committee.

Unintended consequences: the SAPC decision creates a precedent which allows pharmacists to substantiate claims made for unregistered and unregulated products where there is insufficient evidence for the claims to be made. The SAPC decision therefore places consumers at risk of harm, financially and possibly even healthwise.

… Read the rest
June 1st, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: | Leave a comment

Complaint: Pharmacy Council re: Dr Beverley Summers

Posted 1 June 2010

The following formal complaint was laid with the South African Pharmacy Council against the ongoing actions of the pharmacist, Dr Beverley Summers for her continuing substantiation of products with no valid scientific proof of benefit, and at least two having been banned in the USA (and regarded as scams)

[note note_color=”#f9fca8″]Update: The outcome of the complaint below, laid with the SAPC against Dr Beverley Summers, was that the SAPC did not find against her [read outcome]; because they did not consider the case at all, choosing instead to allow the ASA’s ruling to stand – along with her untruthful substantiations of these spurious weight-loss products, denounced as scams by the USA Federal Trade Commission.[/note]

… Read the rest
June 1st, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: | Leave a comment