“Quackery” outlawed in registered pharmacy

A serious loophole in Britain's medicines laws has been closed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society after a disciplinary hearing in which a widely sold alternative therapy was described as unscientific “quackery.”

The society's statutory committee last month warned registered pharmacists that they would be struck off if they associated themselves “in any way” with a remedy called “spagyrik therapy.” Spagyrik therapy, sold by Signalysis of Stroud, Gloucestershire, is described as a “system of diagnosis and treatment in one” and has been marketed particularly at people with a life threatening or chronic illness. The process entails distilling then evaporating a blood and urine sample and examining the resulting ash under a microscope to produce “an individualised patient oriented diagnosis.” The ash is …