CSP is instructing all physiotherapists to stop providing platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy to patients, with immediate effect, after its classification as a medicinal product.
The new advice follows discussions with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), who have now confirmed to CSP that PRP is classed as an unlicensed human medicine in the UK.
As a result, its use is subject to human medicines legislation and no legal or regulatory framework currently exists to allow physiotherapists to use PRP in practice.
The use of PRP as a medicinal product requires a marketing authorisation and manufacturing licence, and physiotherapists are not exempt from this requirement.
Therefore, physiotherapists cannot provide PRP to patients and this practice must stop immediately.
Ash James, CSP director of Practice and Development, said: ‘The MHRA has confirmed this week that, based on the use of PRP by physiotherapists in the UK, they class it as a medicine.
‘That classification as a medicine means that we, as physiotherapists, are subject to the marketing authorisation and manufacturing licencing that exists in the UK, and we do not have an exemption from that licence to be able to utilise PRP. This therefore puts us outside of the legal and regulatory frameworks to be able to continue to use PRP.
As a result, the CSP's position is that there are now no appropriate circumstances where physiotherapists should be preparing, injecting or utilising PRP therapy with patients and therefore, effective immediately, all physiotherapists should stop utilising PRP with their patients.
'It is important that the CSP does everything it can to protect members, particularly if they maybe inadvertently practicing unlawfully.'
The CSP has created a comprehensive PRP injections page that provides further information about these changes and offers detailed answers to frequently asked questions about this issue.
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