Which is something that certain supp manufacturers\/retailers evidently don’t understand.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the week, I\u00a0clicked\u00a0through\u00a0an interesting\u00a0presentation given at the recent International Society of Sports Nutrition conference.\u00a0 Entitled “Sports Supplements, Science, and the Politics of New Washington<\/a>“, it\u00a0offered some explicit warnings to the supplement industry.\u00a0 As authors Rick Collins, JD, CSCS and Alan Feldstein, JD put it in a section headed “Self-Regulation or More Regulation”:<\/p>\n If companies making unsubstantiated claims continue to be reported in the press, and lawsuits and class actions proliferate, FDA and FTC may ratchet up their scrutiny.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Indeed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just out of curiosity, I ambled over to fda.gov this morning to look at the warning letters issued for 2009<\/a>, and happened to notice a recurring theme:<\/p>\n Unapproved\/Uncleared\/Unauthorized Products Related to the H1N1 Flu Virus<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Since H1N1 is a novel human disease agent<\/a>, any company claiming its product(s) can prevent or treat H1N1 infections is making the mother of all unsubstantiated claims.<\/p>\n As I noted in this May 2009 post<\/a>, a coalition of supplement industry trade groups took the nearly-unheard-of step<\/a> of urging supplement manufacturers and retailers to \u201crefuse to stock or sell any supplements that are presented as treating or curing swine flu\u201d and to \u201crefrain from promoting any dietary supplement as a cure or treatment for swine flu.\u201d<\/p>\n This\u00a0plea apparently fell on\u00a0more than a few deaf ears, however, judging from the number of warnings sent out so far.\u00a0 The FDA even has a special page, the Fraudulent 2009 H1N1 Influenza Products List<\/a>, to cover all the products\/companies they’ve cited… so far.\u00a0 As the\u00a0agency put\u00a0it:<\/p>\n This list does not include every Web site that is marketing products related to the 2009 H1N1 Flu Virus without FDA approval, clearance, or authorization, only those Web sites to which FDA has issued a warning letter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n