Lichtwer does not expect St John's wort to be licensed in the UK for a few years, despite applying for a licence three years ago. Mr Paul Kerry (managing director, Lichtwer Pharma UK) hopes that the product will be licensed in the UK within the next three years and that, in the future, other popular herbal drugs will also be licensed.
Lichtwer Pharma had made a licence application for Kira in 1997, Mr Kerry told The Journal on March 17. The Committee on Safety of Medicines had requested further information and studies were currently being conducted.
In the meantime, the company would be supplying a warning leaflet for patients with its St John's wort products following advice from the Medicines Control Agency (MCA) (PJ, March 4, p358). Mr Kerry pointed out that it had been unable to supply such information before because the product was unlicensed.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health told The Journal that St John's wort would be licensed when a company submitted an application which could be approved in terms of quality, safety and efficacy as proven by clinical trial data.