From the latest edition of The Millenium Project

http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/

What did they know and when did they know it? (3/9/2005)

I started my presentation at the Australian Skeptics 2005 National
Convention by apologising on behalf of SkeptoBear,
(http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/bear/) who couldn't be there
because he was at Lady Cilento's health farm undergoing detoxification
in an American Indian sweat lodge. When I got back home I did a search
for Lady Cilento's address so that I could send a get well card to The
Bear, and I serendipitously found something very interesting about the
alternative medicine industry in Australia.

It seems that one of the major prizes in the Australian alternative
business is the Lady Cilento Award, and it is so prestigious that it
is not awarded every year. In September 2002, the Lady Cilento Award
was given to Jim Selim, the boss and owner of Pan Pharmaceuticals, a
company which was shut down by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in
April 2003 because its standards of hygiene, manufacture and quality
control were of a level which would not be acceptable in a primary
school cooking class. (You can read some of my comments on Pan at
http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/pan.htm) At the time that the
nominations were being discussed by the relevant committee of the
Complementary Healthcare Council, representatives of the next three
biggest manufacturers and packagers of alternative medicine products
objected to Pan getting the award. These objections were not based on
a competitor getting a prize, but because they were aware of what was
going on in the Pan factory. (You can read a press report about the
award and its aftermath at
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/01/1051382048483.html)

So, what do we now know? We know that people at the top of the
alternative industry were aware of the problems at Pan at least seven
months before the TGA took action. We know that when Pan was shut
down, the unanimous response of the industry was that there was a
witch hunt going on and that the real problems were confined to a
single packet of Travacalm tablets (and even then there might have
been no real problem). We know that when a very serious problem arises
it is not addressed but is instead covered up or dismissed as trivial.
We know that we can trust them to weed out fraud and bad practices as
much as we can trust the claims for the beneficial and healing
properties of the snake oil that they sell. And vice versa.

(Disclaimer: I am a member of the Complementary Healthcare Council of
Australia. After all, CHCA's stated aims are the same as mine - to
ensure that alternative medicines are safe and effective and that no
unsubstantiated claims are made about their use.)