Homeopathy & Opportunity

Yes, I called out one govt to another...

One year ago, on the 10 August 2023, the Commonwealth Ombudsman closed its seven-year investigation into complaints of scientific misconduct by the Australian Government research institute (NHMRC) within their 2015 report on homeopathy.

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BACKGROUND In August 2016, the Australian Homeopathic Association (AHA) and stakeholders made a formal complaint to the Commonwealth Ombudsman against the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).¹

The complaint, investigated under the PID (aka Whistle-blower) Act, aimed to hold the NHMRC accountable for bias, misconduct and ultimately misleading the public in their inaccurate 2015 report on homeopathy.

The Homeopathy Research Institute (HRI) provided their expert input to the investigation detailing the flawed scientific methods used by NHMRC to produce their homeopathy review.²

The Ombudsman’s Office finalized their investigation in 4 August 2023.³

In response, Rachel Roberts, the Chief Executive of HRI, stated:

“The use of unprecedented and flawed scientific methods by NHMRC is at the very heart of this case.

It is therefore extremely disappointing that the Ombudsman could not find any scientific experts, sufficiently free from bias – either for or against homeopathy – who were willing to take on the role of judging the validity of the methods used by NHMRC.

Since the NHMRC report on homeopathy has been widely quoted, it is profoundly regrettable that, despite a seven-year investigation, the scientific misconduct case against NHMRC remains unanswered.” ⁴

The full and scandalously unscientific story of the 2015 Australian Report can be found here⁵ and here.⁶

FAST FORWARD to New Zealand in 2024…

The government is working to repeal the Therapeutics Products Act (2023) (background on this stunning piece of legislation including my public submission in opposition to it here.⁷

Part of the repeal process aka The Therapeutic Products Act Repeal Bill included public submissions, mine can be found here⁸ and spoke to NZ’s lack of data of complementary and alternative medicine use, homeopathy within primary care, the Gujarat declaration, up-to-date collective evidence (trials) for homeopathy, and the NHMRC 2015 report on homeopathy.

My submission got me a seat at the table with the Health Committee.

Unbeknownst to me, I was the only individual submitter in the room (not on behalf of industry), and mine was the only submission speaking to the intended modernized regime for natural health products…

Having just 5 minutes to speak necessitated focus upon just one aspect

so, of course I chose to call out one government to another

it was my duty as a homeopath, having been given this opportunity, to do so.

My following oral submission was not well received by industry lobbyists in the room…

Thank you to Chair Uffindell and Members of the Health Committee for this opportunity to state my support for the Therapeutic Products Act Repeal Bill, and to speak to homeopathic medicine as regarding the intended modernised regime for natural health products.

My name is Sarah Penrose, and I am a New Zealand registered homeopath.  

New Zealand has a critical lack of comprehensive data on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use;⁹

however, a 2021 review found 80% of GPs refer their patients to CAM practitioners and 25% of GPs themselves practice CAM.¹⁰

The World Health Organization recognizes billions of people use CAM for their health care’¹¹

Homeopathy is included within the national health systems of Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico, Pakistan, and Switzerland.¹²

Regarding the intended modernised regime for natural health products it must be entered into record and made clear to the Health Committee that the widely quoted Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) report on homeopathy¹³ is not scientifically reliable to inform decision making regarding efficacy of homeopathic medicine.

The 2015 NHMRC report concluded that “…there are no health conditions for which there is reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective”¹⁴

triggering worldwide headlines that homeopathy does not work.

However, four years later, in 2019, the then NHMRC CEO stated that “Contrary to some claims, the review did not conclude that homeopathy was ineffective.”¹⁵

In 2023, the Australian Ombudsman’s Office closed their seven-year long inquiry into scientific misconduct within the NHMRC report on homeopathy stating:

“Despite our best efforts, it was not possible to engage an expert (or experts) to provide independent advice to our Office on this subject. In the absence of independent, expert scientific expertise we have not been able to conclusively determine those matters of scientific methodology.”¹⁶

Those matters of scientific misconduct include the use of unprecedented and flawed scientific methods and undeclared conflicts of interest of the chair.¹⁷

The NHMRC actually conducted an earlier 2012 report which was rejected and hidden from tax-payers, and stated the second report of 2015 was based on a “rigorous assessment of over 1800 studies” when in fact it was based upon just five.

The current Australian Natural Therapies Review 2019-20¹⁸ submitted evidence document contains over 130 pages of homeopathy studies.¹⁹

In 2023 researchers stated²⁰ stated:

‘In contrast to frequent claims, the available MAs of homoeopathy in placebo-controlled randomised trials for any indication show significant positive effects beyond placebo.

Compared to other medical interventions, the quality of evidence for efficacy of homoeopathy was similar or higher than for 90% of interventions across medicine.²¹

Accordingly, the efficacy evidence from placebo-controlled randomised trials provides no justification for regulatory or political actions against homoeopathy in health-care systems.’

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1. The National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Research Integrity, Australian Homeopathic Association. 2017. Executive Summary - Commonwealth Ombudsman Complaint. Available from http://www.nhmrchomeopathy.com/ombudsman-exec-summary.html

2. https://www.hri-research.org/2023/08/hri-statement-on-closure-of-commonwealth-ombudsman-investigation/

3. Commonwealth Ombudsman, 2023. Finalisation of investigation relating to the National Health and Medical Research Council's review of the evidence for the effectiveness of homeopathy. Available from: https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/300014/NHMRC-2023-Statement.pdf

4. https://www.hri-research.org/2023/08/hri-statement-on-closure-of-commonwealth-ombudsman-investigation/

5. www.HRI-Research.org/Australian-Report

6.

7.

8.

9. Lee et al., 2021. Mapping prevalence and patterns of use of, and expenditure on, traditional, complementary and alternative medicine in New Zealand: a scoping review of qualitative and quantitative studies. N Z Med J. Sep3;134(1541):57-74. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34531597

10. Liu et al., 2021. Complementary and alternative medicine - practice, attitudes, and knowledge among healthcare professionals in New Zealand: an integrative review. BMC complementary medicine and therapies. 21(1), 63. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7882070/

11. World Health Organisation, 2023. WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit Towards health and well-being for all Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, 17-18 August 2023.  Available from: https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/traditional-medicine/who_tm_summit_meeting_report_gujarat_declaration.pdf?sfvrsn=4a816abb_1&download=true

12. Homeopathy Research Institute, 2024. Homeopathy use around the world. Available from: https://www.hri-research.org/resources/essentialevidence/use-of-homeopathy-across-the-world/

13. Australian Government. National Health and Medical Research Council. 2023. Homeopathy. Available from: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/resources/homeopathy

14. Effectiveness of Homeopathy for Clinical Conditions: Evaluation of the Evidence. Overview Report. Prepared for the NHMRC Homeopathy Working Committee by Optum. October 2013. Available from: https://www.hri-research.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Homeopathy-Overview-Report.pdf

15. Australian Government. National Health and Medical Research Council. 2019. CEO Statement Release of an annotated version of the 2012 draft report The Effectiveness of Homeopathy: an overview review of secondary evidence. Available from: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/attachments/CEO-statement-signed.pdf

16. Commonwealth Ombudsman, 2023. Finalisation of investigation relating to the National Health and Medical Research Council's review of the evidence for the effectiveness of homeopathy. Available from: https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/300014/NHMRC-2023-Statement.pdf

17. Homeopathy Research Institute, 2024. The Australian Report. Available from: https://www.hri-research.org/resources/homeopathy-the-debate/the-australian-report-on-homeopathy/

18. Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. The Australian Natural Therapies Review 2019-20. Available from: https://www.health.gov.au/topics/private-health-insurance/private-health-insurance-reforms/natural-therapies-review-2019-20

19. Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. The Australian Natural Therapies Review 2019-20. Tranche 2 submitted evidence. Available from: https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-04/tranche-2-submitted-evidence.pdf

20. Hamre et al., 2023. Efficacy of homoeopathic treatment: Systematic review of meta-analyses of randomised placebo-controlled homoeopathy trials for any indication. Systematic Rev. 2023 Oct 7;12(1):191. https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13643-023-02313-2#Abs1

21. Howick et al., 2022. Most healthcare interventions tested in Cochrane Reviews are not effective according to high quality evidence: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Clin Epidemiol. Aug;148:160-169. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35447356/