Two Co Clare GPs are being prosecuted by the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) over the supply of unauthorised medicines, including a herbal treatment based on the herb St John's Wort, it emerged yesterday.
A spokeswoman for the IMB said yesterday that the prosecutions were the first of their type to be taken against GPs in Ireland by the IMB under the Irish Medicines Board Act, 1995.
Dr Pascal Carmody and Dr Freida Keane-Carmody, of Tinarana House, Ogonnelloe, Killaloe, are each facing 46 separate charges in relation to the alleged offences. Two days have been set aside for a special District Court sitting in Killaloe in September at which the Carmodys are expected to contest the charges.
The case first came for mention before Killaloe District Court last January.
The Carmodys operate an exclusive health resort at Tinarana House, which is set on a 300-acre estate on the shores of Lough Derg outside the east Clare village of Killaloe.
They also run the East Clare Clinic there.
When contacted about the charges yesterday, Dr Freida Keane-Carmody, who is a member of the board of Shannon Development, the regional development agency for the area, said that she had "nothing to say".
Forty-three of the charges relate to the supply of medicines by the Carmodys to a female between October 27th, 1999 and January 31st, 2000.
The remaining three charges relate to the alleged wholesale sale of medicine without a licence between October 27th and November 22nd, 1999.
A limited company, Heddonvard Ltd, with an address at the East Clare Clinic, Killaloe, is also facing the same charges.
The IMB alleges that the Carmodys supplied the same female with Dihydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on 18 occasions between October 27th, 1999 and January 31st, 2000, contrary to Section 5 of the Medicinal Products (Prescription and Control of Supply) Regulations, 1996, under Section 32 of the Irish Medicines Board Act, 1995.
They are also charged with supplying Pregnenolone to the same woman on 16 occasions over the same three-month period, contrary to Section 5 of the Medicinal Products (Prescription and Control of Supply) Regulations, 1996, under Section 32 of the Irish Medicines Board Act, 1995.
The Carmodys are also charged with supplying the same woman with Prozaplex, which is a herbal treatment based on the herb St John's Wort, on January 24th 2000.
In the charges relating to the unauthorised wholesale sale of medicines, the Carmodys are charged with selling wholesale 804 cough bottles without a wholesaler's licence on October 27th, 1999.
The Carmodys also face charges relating to the wholesale sale of Gingko Biloba on November 11th, 1999 and Melatonin on November 22nd, 1999.
