Homeopathic dupes

New Internationalist, June, 2004 by Peter Kennedy

Re Gurmej Virk's letter (NI 366). 'Our populations are unhealthier than ever and the diseases that plague us are more serious' compared to 100 years ago? Really? When one in every three children born died of disease in childhood?

Big Pharma would love an effective medicine that could be produced for next to nothing; it would greatly increase profit margins. Homeopathy is 'discredited', by health departments, doctors and scientists, not because of any opposition by Big Pharma, but because there has never been any evidence that it has 'cured' anything. Yet charlatans continue to profit from selling it. Yes, you did leave something out of your Big Pharma issue (NI 362)--the massive profits Big (and Small) Pharma makes from the unregulated sale of homeopathic and other 'alternative' medicine which does no good and much harm.

Peter Kennedy pharmacist, Sydney, Australia