Proposed solution to regulation of nutraceuticals – part 1

The health food industry is a consumer business largely based on traditional home remedies. The marketing and sales forces are the mass media, which publicized and dramatized it. This has largely been possible because the FDA does not regulate scientists, or the media, or physicians and consumers. It only regulates industry, which has neither conducted the research nor in most cases made the claims.

Therefore, there is no regulatory system for the nutraceutical market-in spite of the fact that it has entered the mainstream of science, medicine and the consumer marketplace.

The obvious solution is to establish an updated regulatory process which serves the public interest and matches today's scientific and medical reality. Instead of discouraging private research investment for the development of innovative products and responsible claims, a new system must be established which encourages a vital research-oriented industry for the development and marketing of nutraceuticals.

Because of the FDA's difficulties in regulating nutrition through traditional food and drug guidelines and regulations, Dr. Stephen DeFelice(Chairman of The Foundation for Innovation in Medicine in New York) proposed that a Nutraceutical Commission should be established specifically for the regulation of this new product category.

The new commission should preside over a well conceived system designed to bring nutraceuticals into the mainstream of the food and health care industries. It should also diminish the present barriers and risks for private research and development, encourage research by conferring a degree of exclusivity on nutraceutical products, and facilitate and regulate the development of responsible promotional claims.

References:
http://www.fimdefelice.org/archives/arc.revolution.html