By Daniel Fabricant, PhD, CEO and Executive Director, Natural Products Association
While we should certainly take a second to pause and reflect in honor of the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), it’s important to keep in mind that the industry as a beacon of growth must focus...
Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association, has a unique perspective on the 20th anniversary of DSHEA having started in the herbal products industry in 1974, twenty years before the law was passed. The law, as he sees it,...
The dietary supplement business has gone from fighting for its life to enjoying the fruits of an open, dynamic marketplace, and it’s all because of DSHEA, according to Loren Isrealsen, president of the United Natural Products Alliance.
Despite ongoing vacancies in the main office of the Division of Dietary Supplements, companies must continue to build relationships with FDA’s district offices to ensure ongoing GMP compliance, says Dr Daniel Fabricant, CEO of the Natural Products Association.
The GRAS process as it stands in the United States is vulnerable to criticism based on possible conflicts of interest and low-quality safety work, said Claire Kruger, PhD, president of Spherix Consulting, a division of ChromaDex.
Preliminary figures from the American Herbal Products Association show that one in four recent New Dietary Ingredient notifications went through without objections from the Food and Drug Administration. Whether that represents an improvement in the overall...
Nascent Health Sciences has resubmitted a New Dietary Ingredient notification (NDIN) for its PureQQ pyrroloquinoline quinone ingredient following a negative response from the FDA first time around, and the company stands by the safety of its product....
The Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act has given rise to a thriving dietary supplements industry. Botanical ingredients have always been a part of that picture, but the concept of where they fit within that category has shifted over the years...
The Natural Algae Astaxanthin Association (NAXA) has again questioned the quality and regulatory status of DSM’s synthetic astaxanthin ingredient, with new data reportedly showing ‘vastly inferior antioxidant potential’ compared with the natural, algae-derived...
The Natural Products Association (NPA) announced this morning that Daniel Fabricant, PhD, will succeed John Shaw as chief executive officer of the organization effective immediately. Shaw had tendered his resignation several days ago, the organization...
A key new hire has enabled consulting firm Ingredient Identity to signficantly ramp up its capabilities. In line with that development, the company has formed four new divisions to better present the new capabilities to its customers, said Jim Lassiter,...
Attorney Justin Prochnow has made a career of reading the FDA tea leaves for his clients. As the industry enters 2014, he sees a long-term trend of GMP enforcement and nascent guidances on New Dietary Ingredients and liquid dietary supplements as the...
Reading through the warning letter tea leaves, Denver-based attorney Justin Prochnow has come up with some important themes from the Food and Drug Administration. Obligations of brand holders, status of liquid products and the regulatory status of new...
As dietary supplement firms prepare for their initial (or follow up) GMP compliance inspections, it pays to have the advice of a consultant and/or a lawyer up front. Fixing problems on the back end is inevitably more expensive, said attorney Ivan Wasserman.
Adverse event reporting, amphetamine-like substances showing up in products and NDI notifications are all prominent blips on FDA’s radar, said Loren Israelsen, president of the United Natural Products Alliance.
One year on and 'GMPs' and 'concern' continue to be used together by Dr Daniel Fabricant, Director of the Division of Dietary Supplement Programs at the agency, with many of the compliance issues still basic.
The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition's (CFSAN) priority to publish guidance to help manufacturers with voluntarily GMO labeling could signal a change in thinking at the agency, says the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA).
The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has outlined its priorities for 2013-14, with a 'surprising' number relevant to supplements, including NDIs, GRAS, and GMOs.
The question whether an NDI notification opens the door for follow on ingredients has yet to be definitively answered. But sources say the question is a lot clearer when the putative follow on ingredient might not even be the same thing.
Let’s assume you’ve done your homework on your new ingredient and have successfully filed a New Dietary Ingredient notification with the Food and Drug Administration. Can a competitor launching a me-too product come along and trade on that status? It’s...
Key members of the United States Congress have voiced concern over the speed of progress of revising the controversial draft guidance for new dietary ingredients (NDIs), and called on FDA to produce a revised draft guidance in a 'timely manner'.
The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) has submitted comments to the FDA via international law firm Steptoe & Johnson, LLP, to address when an ingredient is chemically altered such that it would require a separate NDI notification.
The five associations representing the dietary supplement industry have asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue revised guidance on new dietary ingredient (NDI) notifications, with a specific focus on the information to be included to identify...
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, one of the dietary supplement industry’s new champions on Capitol Hill, spoke with NutraIngredients-USA to offer his views on the industry and the challenges it faces now.
To go with an expanding membership, the American Herbal Products Association has expanded its staff with the addition of Jane Wilson in the newly created role of director of program development.
Benfotiamine, a form of thiamine or vitamin B1, has been on the market for decades. So what makes BenfoPure, a branded form of the ingredient now represented by XSTO Solutions, special? The differentiator, said XSTO’s Dan Murray, is in the details.
The ancient Israelites had Moses and Aaron. The dietary supplements industry has Senators Tom Harkin and Orrin Hatch, but not for long—Harkin has announced that he will retire at the end of his current term next year.
In January, NutraIngredients-USA raised its head above the parapet and made some predictions for 2012. As the year draws to a close, we look back on what did and didn’t come to pass.
Strong enforcement from FDA on cGMPs (current good manufacturing practices) will continue, says FDA’s Dr Daniel Fabricant, but given that many GMP basics are still not being met and the Agency's limited resources, many of the issues seen today may...
Concerns over tainted dietary supplements are extending to products promoted for pain/inflammation and diabetes, beyond the ‘classic’ sectors of erectile dysfunction, weight loss and bodybuilding, said the new head of CFSAN at FDA.
Firms hoping the FDA might change its unpopular stance on synthetic copies of botanical constituents as it rewrites its draft guidance on new dietary ingredients (NDIs) could be disappointed.
The International Probiotics Association (IPA) has hailed the announcement that FDA is revisiting its controversial new dietary ingredient (NDI) draft guidance, but has warned that more work is required.
He might not have worked in the natural products industry, but John Spitaleri Shaw is also acutely aware that “highly technical, inside baseball talk” does not make for a winning “elevator speech” in the corridors of power in Washington DC.
The FDA might have spent the past year vigorously defending its much-maligned draft guidance on new dietary ingredients (NDIs), but it appears it has been listening to industry concerns as well.
Jarrow Formulas has raised its concerns about the FDA’s draft guidance on new dietary ingredients (NDIs) with House Speaker John Boehner as part of its campaign to alert members of Congress to the dangers the “fatally flawed” document presents to the...
A class action lawsuit filed against Nutrex Research over the safety and regulatory status of supplements containing DMAA (1,3-Dimethylamylamine) has been given the green light to proceed by a judge in California.
Washington DC insider and former administration official John Spitaleri Shaw has been named as the new chief executive and executive director of the Natural Products Association (NPA).
USPLabs has taken legal action against a Max Muscle franchisee in Reno, Nevada, accusing owner Philip Tracy of making "false and disparaging" comments about its Jack3d supplement, and its core ingredient DMAA (1,3-Dimethylamylamine).
Company mottos and mission statements are marvelous – they talk about lofty goals, commitments to people and the environment, and leaving the planet a better place than how they found it. But boil it all down and there are only two words that companies...
Tipped by many as the heir apparent to DMAA supplements in the pre-workout category, the dietary supplement Craze is the latest to be hit with a class action in the State of California.
All 10 recipients of FDA warning letters on DMAA have now written back, although only one - Nutrex Research - has so far revealed what it said (notably that the agency's interpretation of the law is “demonstrably wrong”).
The Food & Drug Administration is not preparing to enforce its controversial draft guidance on new dietary ingredients (NDIs), but companies can expect more inspections, more injunctions, and more product seizures related to current good manufacturing...
The whole “adventure” over DMAA (1,3-Dimethylamylamine) is “a perfect example of a gaping loophole in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) which needs to closed”, according to one academic.
With the road ahead now appearing closed - or at least decidedly rocky - for pre-workout stimulant DMAA (1,3-Dimethylamylamine), attention is turning to alternatives. But could they be just as controversial?
The law firm responsible for the flurry of class action lawsuits against 10 firms named by the FDA in its DMAA crackdown last week has now targeted four other firms selling products containing the stimulant.
They’ve had the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads for months. So when 10 firms selling DMAA supplements were finally told to put up or shut up by the FDA last week, it looked like the game might finally be up for the controversial stimulant.
In warning letters sent as part of its recent crackdown on DMAA, the FDA says “synthetically produced DMAA is not a dietary ingredient and, therefore, is not eligible to be used as an active ingredient in a dietary supplement”.
UPDATED May 3 - All 10 recipients of FDA warning letters over supplements containing DMAA (1,3-Dimethylamylamine) have now been targeted in a new wave of class action lawsuits in California alleging their products contain DMAA in a synthetic form that...
