The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed restrictions on the use of nutritional supplements that may go into effect on October 1, 2011, unless sufficient opposition is offered. The plan is to classify supplements introduced after October, 1994, as “new dietary ingredients”, subject to expensive and prolonged testing and verification.
These restrictions would apply to resveratrol, GABA, ubiquinol, curcumin, and other products introduced in recent years, and make them no longer available to consumers, except at great expense.
Only wealthy pharmaceutical companies have the assets to undertake such testing and approval processes, which would cost in the tens of millions of dollars per item. The result would be to eliminate supplement manufacturers from competition, and raise the cost of these items astronomically. A supplement now available for $50 dollars would cost $250-$500. Some items would be financially out of reach for most people.
We have already seen this strategy in action. Patients have entered the office with bottles of omega 3 fatty acids and folic acid/B12 combinations, prescribed by physicians and obtained as pharmaceutical products, costing 5-10 times more than similar items made by reputable producers of supplements. (more…)