|
In early July, two staff members of the American Botanical Council (ABC) spent a full day in Brasilia, the Brazilian capital, conducting a presentation and leading a discussion on the future of dietary supplement with key researchers, academics, industry leaders, and staff members of the Brazilian Ministry of Health.
The full-day event was a part of a weeklong visit to Brazil by ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal and Chief Administrative Officer Wayne Silverman, PhD as the guests of Laboratório Catarinense S/A, a 60 year-old supplement and pharmaceutical manufacturer in southern Brazil. Blumenthal and Silverman visited the Catarinense facilities in Joinville, the Federal University in the beautiful coastal city of Florianópolis, and São Paulo University. At each of these institutions, Blumenthal and Silverman toured medical research facilities where pharmacological and clinical research is being conducted on the uses of herbal preparations derived from plants growing in the general region, as well as chemical fractions derived from some local plants.
On July 7 Blumenthal conducted a 3-hour presentation followed by a 90-minute discussion to about 60 participants entitled “O Uso Racional de Fitomedicamentos e a Legislatção de Plantas Medicinais” (in English “The Rational Use of Phytomedicines and the Regulation of Medicinal Plants in the World.”) The purpose of the presentation was to provide an overview of models used to regulate and approve herbal medicine in key industrialized nations around the world; these included Australia, Canada, Germany (Commission E), the European Union, and the United States. The purpose was to provide an effort to shape the newly re-forming regulatory system of Brazil. Most in attendance participated in a very lively discussion that focused on those key aspects of regulation in other parts of the world that might fit for Brazil.
Numerous staff members from ANVISA (the National Health Surveillance Agency), whose responsibility it is to shape the regulatory system, attended, including the head of this office, Ms. Alda Coutinho, PhD (ANVISA operates with the Brazilian Ministry of Health under a management contract.). The mission of ANVISA is "To protect and promote health, ensuring the hygiene and safety of products and services and taking part in developing access to it." The event was organized by Laboratorio Catarinense and hosted by its owner, Ney Silva and its Director of Science, Luc Raes, MD. Also attending the presentation were renowned researchers in the fields of pharmacology and medicine including, Professors Irineu Velasco, MD, PhD, of the São Paulo University School of Medicine, João Calixto, PhD of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Luiz Pianowski, PhD and Manoel Odorico de Moraes, MD, PhD and others. Other industry leaders were also in attendance including Peter M. Andersen of Grupo Centroflora, Brazil’s leading herbal extraction company for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industry using environmentally sustainable practices, Fernando Pecoraro of Ybios, a company that manages basic and applied herbal research that ensures sustainability and diversity, and others.
|