Posted by Margy Squires on 5/13/2022 to
Supplement Safety

Politics are complicated. But here's why and how to add your voice to protect your rights to supplements.
As many of you know, we belong to a trade organization for our industry, The Natural Products Association (NPA). Part of our dues help support activist efforts in Washington. We need to oppose the latest slam on the supplement industry to protect our right to supplements without this proposed FDA control.
Senator Durbin, one of the co-sponsors of Bill S-4090 introduced on April 26, 2022, states the FDA “has the authority to regulate dietary supplements and take dangerous products off the market but it lacks the information to do so.” Therefore one aspect of the bill proposes a mandatory product listing to gain this “missing” information.
Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D., President and CEO, Natural Products Association, disagrees, citing the bill is requiring a “pre-market approval” and does not keep “bad” products off the shelf. He further says: “Sadly, Senator Braun and Durbin are using their dislike of the dietary supplement industry to misrepresent the industry's excellent safety record. S.4090 severely undermines these carefully crafted protections, which is why I am urging you to write Congress today to let them know you oppose this potentially catastrophic legislation. Don't let Senators Braun and Durbin threaten your access to dietary supplements.”
Originally, the supplement industry had Good Manufacturing Practices already set up through the NPA. However, the FDA wanted control even then. The NPA diligently worked with the FDA to “tweak” these GMPs to set up mutually agreed GMP guidelines to appease the FDA. GMP certification is done by an independent third party. In addition, reputable companies follow all the labeling guidelines for active and inactive ingredients required by GMP. Our industry is in the business of supporting our customers’ health.
Supplements are not drugs and do not need the new demands this S-4090 bill is requesting. In fact, the FDA recalls around 1300 drugs a year, even though they are pre-approved for market. Once on the market, the FDA also has a Serious Adverse Event Reporting system for both drugs and supplements.
There are other problems and issues with the bill. Please read the excellent article by Nutraceutical World here. Then use the form supplied by the NPA to voice your opposition to S-4090 here.
You may also want to refresh your reading of TyH’s article on quality listed below from our online library.
©TyH Publications (M. Squires). For informational purposes only.