What became of Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) attempt to pass more regulations on dietary supplements.
Recently we alerted ANH members about another supplement sneak attack from Senator Durbin that would institute a mandatory listing requirement for dietary supplements. The good news is that Sen. Durbin has, so far, held off on introducing this legislation, so ANH member advocacy alongside other stakeholder actions have likely deterred him. We are, however, continuing to reach out to Congress to oppose mandatory listing for supplements since we know Sen. Durbin is still looking for an opportunity get it through.
We know Senator Durbin’s goal is, and has been, to create a mandatory product listing with the FDA, which seems innocuous but is not. The problem is that FDA is separately completing a process to eliminate every supplement from the market that doesn’t meet “new supplement” notification requirements, which are akin to new drug requirements, and the FDA needs Sen. Durbin’s list to locate and pull an estimated 41,700 supplements from the market.
Such notification requirements may seem reasonable, even laudable, but they will restrict consumer access to supplements. Drugs can afford these types of requirements because they are patentable in a way natural food supplements are not, which means that supplements do not have the ability to recoup the costs of complying with additional regulations. This will either force companies to go out of business or it will make supplements so expensive that they are priced out of the market.
Mandatory listing is also a solution in search of a problem since we know that supplements have a consistently sterling record of safety.
We will continue to closely monitor the situation and update you accordingly. In the meantime, we need to keep up the pressure to make sure this bad proposal doesn’t move forward.
Action Alert! Write to Congress and oppose any efforts to pass mandatory listing for dietary supplements. Please send your message immediately.
