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The US Food and Drug Administration yesterday (February 11) announced it was posting warning or advisory letters about 17 companies for marketing dozens of products it deems “unapproved new drugs and/or misbranded drugs.” The agency also released a lengthy statement by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on new steps “to protect the public from unsafe and unlawful products” and penalize bad actors in the dietary supplement marketplace.
Gottlieb’s statement notes that in the quarter-century since Congress passed the law that gives the FDA the authority to regulate the dietary supplement industry, that market has grown from offering about 4,000 products to between 50,000 and 80,000, and that three out of four Americans now consume supplements regularly. “As the popularity of supplements has grown, so have the number of entities marketing potentially dangerous products or making unproven or misleading claims about the health benefits they may deliver,” the ...
