A Medical Device Daily

A new UK government report suggests that more than nine out of 10 practitioners, patient groups and members of the public could support the Department of Health's proposals to regulate the acupuncturists and herbal medicine industry.

Responses to the department's consultation paper, "Regulation of herbal medicine and acupuncture," show 98.5% support for a UK-wide system of statutory regulation of herbal medicine and acupuncture from those responding.

The Department of Health plans to introduce a register of acupuncturists and herbal medicine practitioners to help protect patients and the public from underqualified practitioners. Those included on the register will be able to use a specific restricted title.

It is estimated that there are more than 4,000 practicing acupuncturists and herbalists in the UK.

Health Minister Lord Warner said existing legislation in the area is "weak," adding that it "fails to provide patients and the public with adequate protection and does not offer a guide as to the competence of the practitioner."

Warner said the majority of responses to the consultation "indicated strong support for our plans to improve patient and public protection by introducing statutory regulation." Such regulation, he said, "will improve patient and public protection by setting clear standards of training and competence for practitioners. It will also enhance the status of the herbal medicine and acupuncture professions."

Health ministers will consider the responses to the consultation paper before issuing a draft order later this year, at which time more detailed proposals will be published for further consultation.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency also published responses to its draft plans to tighten regulation of herbal remedies.

Mike O'Farrell, CEO of the British Acupuncture Council, said, "We have long stood for clear standards of training and competence and believe that the new legislation will further ensure that the current high standards offered by professional acupuncturists will continue to benefit existing patients. It will also give members of the public the reassurance they need to experience the benefits that acupuncture and herbal medicine can offer."

Michael Fox, chief executive of the Prince of Wales's Foundation for Integrated Health, said, "The consultation represents, in our view, a major step forward for the regulation of complementary healthcare. We strongly support the need for statutory regulation of both the acupuncture and herbal medicine professions in the same way as doctors and nurses are regulated."

The Department of Health said respondents to the consultation paper included nine organizations representing practitioners of acupuncture, 12 representing practitioners of herbal medicine and nine representing practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine.

European distributors for SynX

Nanogen (San Diego), a developer of advanced diagnostic products, said its SynX (Toronto) subsidiary has signed five new European distributors for its point-of-care products.

The additional distribution agreements "significantly increase" SynX's coverage to 28 European nations, Nanogen said. The newly expanded network provides SynX with exposure to a potential customer base of more than 7,500 hospitals, 4,000 clinical laboratories and almost 11,000 cardiac specialists, as measured by the European Diagnostic Manufacturers Association.

All of SynX's European distributors were selected based on prior experience in the point-of-care device and equipment sector, as well as knowledge with cardiac and central nervous system diseases. The company said each partner will be responsible for the distribution and marketing of SynX's point-of-care tests and research-oriented products for congestive heart failure (CHF) and myocardial infarction.

Expected to be commercially available this year, the CHF diagnostic product will measure NT-proBNP (N-terminal pro-hormone brain natriuretic peptide), which SynX described as "a sensitive and specific biomarker for the diagnosis of congestive heart failure."

Howard Birndorf, Nanogen's chairman and CEO, said, "These new distribution partners complement our existing distributor networks and provide us with significant relationships with point-of-care diagnostic decision makers in the hospital and research market segments."

He added: "Development of our congestive heart failure test is progressing and expansion of our distribution network is a key objective that will be important to the success of the product."