President’s Letter – Winter 2019

Important News

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you are having a healthy and joyful autumn. We have some interesting homeopathic news items about the AIH and the Homeopathic community in the US.

We recently held our annual 2019 conference in Charlottesville, Virginia featuring the distinguished Dr. Farokh Master from India. Happily, attendance at the conference was higher when compared to other recent AIH conferences. Dr. Master did more than just deliver excellent lectures -he had three live consultations with people having active cancer. I personally found his information gathering, questions, and use of repertory rubrics quite fascinating and educational.

On a different note, the AIH is scheduled to deliver a webinar to medical students from the Scholars Program of American Medical Students Association (AMSA). Drs. Iris Bell and Jennifer Jacobs will be the presenters. Our recently formed Educational Curriculum Committee is made up of three experienced and knowledgeable homeopathic practitioners and teachers -Drs. Susanne Saltzman, Florence McPherson, and Ioana Razi. These three dynamic people have created the first AIH Grand Rounds Presentation, with many to follow. This presentation is an introduction, history, and overview of homeopathy that will complement the AIH Research Webinar. Our vision is to create a series of webinars that will become a vehicle to educate, and maybe even inspire, other practitioners to learn more about homeopathy.

FDA Update: as many of you know, the FDA put out some documents on October 23rd regarding their new proposed draft guidelines, and a rejection of the Citizens Petition submitted by the Americans for Homeopathy Choice organization. The AIH released a joint statement with the AFHC, NASH and National Center for Homeopathy in response.

Here is the actual text:

Statement Regarding the FDA’s Notice of Withdrawing Compliance Policy Guide Sec. 400.400 and FDA’s Issuance of a new Draft Guidance for Homeopathy

The FDA today announced a withdrawal of Compliance Policy Guide Section 400.400 and the issuance of a new Draft Guidance for homeopathy. We fully support the FDA’s efforts to regulate all products that are labeled homeopathic but that are not in fact homeopathic. FDA should ensure that only homeopathic products should bear the label ‘homeopathic.’ We also support the FDA’s responsibility to enforce proper manufacturing processes for all drug products including those properly labeled as homeopathic. Homeopathic drugs are universally recognized as inherently safe and specifically defined as drugs by the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&CA). It is our strong view that a separate section of the FD&CA that sets out the definition of a new drug explicitly excludes homeopathic drugs. The new drug designation in the law is designed to address inherently dangerous chemicals that are used as drugs, requiring a system of review that demonstrates that the benefits of a chemical must outweigh the risks of a chemical before it can be sold as a drug. The FDA’s new guidance moves in a direction we support but has a few gaps that need to be addressed. In particular, we believe the new guidance should clearly differentiate between those products that are in fact homeopathic and those products improperly labeled as homeopathic, allowing FDA to clearly focus its energies on products falsely labeled as homeopathic. It’s important to stress that this new guidance is in draft form. We look forward to continuing our very productive conversations with the FDA to clarify these matters.

Wishing you all a joyous and satisfying day,

Ron Dushkin, MD
President, American Institute of Homeopathy