Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1129

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Little Pharma is a business: Get Used To The Idea
2003 Apr 16

Full text:

In recent weeks, people have been writing to me, asking that I come to the defense of the dietary supplement industry. Why? Because it is under attack by the FDA and global arrangements that will ultimately beat the industry down, allowing Big Pharma to take over supplements.

I take this entire issue very seriously and I try to include articles on the RFD site that will raise questions about unnecessary regulatory moves made by the FDA against the industry, and also by the politics-infested trend to achieve global standards in both the drug and food regulatory spheres.

However, there is another issue that irks me, and sometimes just as much as the marketing tactics of drug companies. It’s the ongoing beat of poor quality information – and quality control that festers like a huge sore in the world of Little Pharma.

The latest episode – in Australia – of the Pan Pharmaceuticals debacle – is an example of how Little Pharma is shooting itself in the foot. A huge recall of products manufactured since May 1, 2002 was spurred on by concerns about serious quality and safety problems in the company’s manufacturing procedures. Pan has since indicated to health authorities that it is progressing with the necessary changes in order to ensure safe and quality products. Nonetheless, the episode has led to an Australian Government inquiry into alternative medicines. And meanwhile, the hunt is on globally for supplements and drugs manufactured by Pan. It is thought that many countries may still be selling them.

Lately, in the U.S., there has been considerable attention paid to ephedra. Again, RFD has provided both sides of the issues being raised. However, here again, the run-away advertising of ephedra in cavalier ways, to particularly attract athletes and those in desperate need of losing excess pounds is weighing heavily on my nerves. Where’s the quality control in some of these products and information on the appropriate ways to use such an herb? Well, it’s there in some cases, and in others, it just isn’t there. Therefore, damage will occur. Another shooting in the foot? Yes.

Here’s what I think has happened: Little Pharma has become a huge industry. It’s not some mom and pop shop like many people seem to still think. And frankly, many people in the industry may well believe they are on some crusade against the mean, nasty drug companies, offering alternative means to an end – better health. But that’s old think. Sorry, the good feelings that so-called alternative “medication” is somehow soft, gentle and true is fantasy. There are more rip-offs in this industry that I can count. Just go to a health food store or pharmacy and see what the range of products has become and the mixes and matches that are becoming more the norm these days. Gingko in a bottle of water? Mixed with Ginseng. Why? What’s the point here, except to make a big buck?

My advice to those in strong support of Little Pharma is to “get real.” Stop hiding behind this silly cape of good will and better living. When I, for example, buy Coenzyme Q10, I want to be sure that when I pick up a bottle, it has been through a careful quality control process and that it provides what is advertised. I don’t give a hoot or a toot about someone smiling at me with flowers in his or her teeth, cooing about how wonderful Q10 is and how terrible the drug industry is: I’d rather have a product that is manufactured according to strict protocols and to know exactly what it is that I am buying. Enough of this charade of “isn’t the alternative way great? Yes, it can be great when the product is properly sold and consumed.

If you are someone who has written to me lately about the evil efforts of the so-called Establishment cartels to seize control of the supplements industry (and there are many who have written on this topic), let me say this: if things keep going the way they are, these industries will deserve each other, and it won’t matter much who controls what. Then we’ll need another “alternative” so that we can set ourselves apart from the greed and corruption that run through both Big and Little Pharma.

If you have any ideas, let me know.