the medical ineffectiveness of many herbs as treatments for specific illnesses or conditions is well established the cost of medical care would be substantially reduced if faster ways of obtaining regulatory-agency approval for new drugs could be found. some other substances, besides herbs, are not available as drugs because the illnesses they could effectively treat are too uncommon to allow those substances to be marketed profitably as drugs a licensed physician cannot recommend the medicinal use of an herb unless that herb is offered for sale as a drug.
Some people claim that the reason herbs are not prescribed as drugs by licensed physicians is that the medical effectiveness of herbs is seriously in doubt. No drug can be offered for sale, however, unless it has regulatory-agency approval for medicinal use in specific illnesses or conditions. It costs about $200 million to get regulatory-agency approval for a drug, and only the holder of a patent can expect to recover such large expenses. Although methods of extracting particular substances from herbs can be patented, herbs themselves and their medicinal uses cannot be. Ttherefore, under the current system licensed physicians cannot recommend the medicinal use of herbs.
The argument depends on the assumption that