Regulate the Supplement Industry You Say?!?!

[MylesBAstor]

Just say oops and pay a 3 billion dollar fine. 3 billion is nothing compared to the profits made on these drugs.

http://www.startribune.com/local/yourvoices/161408025.html

 

[mep]

Why did you call these "supplements?" These are prescription drugs that were being touted to perform miracle cures for things they had never been approved for. When I think of supplements. I think of vitamins.

 

[JackD201]

Holy smokes! There are a whole bunch of Schedule I drugs that are Serotonin uptake inhibitors and they were marketing Paxil to kids?

 

[MylesBAstor]

Why did you call these "supplements?" These are prescription drugs that were being touted to perform miracle cures for things they had never been approved for. When I think of supplements. I think of vitamins.

Exactly! People have been pushing for the regulation of supplements such as vitamins, etc and look what real "pharmaceuticals" are doing.

 

[MylesBAstor]

More sleazy payoffs done by GSK to promote its drugs. How unethical was it for Pinsky not to disclose he was receiving payola from GSK to promote Welbutrin??????

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...aceutical-company-to-promote/?intcmp=features

 

[mep]

Exactly! People have been pushing for the regulation of supplements such as vitamins, etc and look what real "pharmaceuticals" are doing.

Gotcha.

 

[Mike]

I wonder how GSK managed to withhold safety information. Did they miss the reporting deadline? How can a project team conspire to withhold information that they see in a study or is reported to their safety department. Also, those sales folks have quotas to reach, so I can see them promoting off label use, partly because that is less easily detected. The one thing that shock me most of all is that they tried to bribe doctors with Madonna concert tickets.

 

[Keith_W]

Well, this is why supplementary "medicines" should be regulated. Pharmaceuticals, which are regulated, can be punished if they make false or misleading claims. Supplementary medicines, in contrast, make wildly conflated claims and routinely get away with it.

 

[JackD201]

Well, this is why supplementary "medicines" should be regulated. Pharmaceuticals, which are regulated, can be punished if they make false or misleading claims. Supplementary medicines, in contrast, make wildly conflated claims and routinely get away with it.

Makes me think of poor Jim Furyk, 5 Hour Energy endorser, who duck hooks a hybrid off the 16th tee in his sixth hour of play while shared for the lead at the 2012 US Open. Maybe he should've had another bottle in his bag.

 

[MylesBAstor]

Well, this is why supplementary "medicines" should be regulated. Pharmaceuticals, which are regulated, can be punished if they make false or misleading claims. Supplementary medicines, in contrast, make wildly conflated claims and routinely get away with it.

Actually Keith that's not true since wild claims are a FDA red flag. They'll be shut down right away. And the number of supplements that have caused any harm is minuscule compared to the drugs prescribed by docs ans supposedly tested. Actually I can't think of any-ephedrine was BS and later studies showed that.

But this case is exactly wild and falsified claims.

 

[Keith_W]

Myles, I don't know about the FDA but over here, supplementary and alternative medicines can make whatever claims they like. Thus - chiropractors claim to cure asthma and diabetes, homeopaths claim to cure cancer, acupuncturists claim to cure autoimmune and joint diseases, and all amount of pseudoscientific quackery flourishes. OTOH - pharmaceuticals are strictly regulated, especially expensive drugs. As a doc, if I wanted to prescribe some drugs labelled "authority", I have to call up the feds, give a code, justify my decision, before I am allowed to prescribe.

 

[MylesBAstor]

Myles, I don't know about the FDA but over here, supplementary and alternative medicines can make whatever claims they like. Thus - chiropractors claim to cure asthma and diabetes, homeopaths claim to cure cancer, acupuncturists claim to cure autoimmune and joint diseases, and all amount of pseudoscientific quackery flourishes. OTOH - pharmaceuticals are strictly regulated, especially expensive drugs. As a doc, if I wanted to prescribe some drugs labelled "authority", I have to call up the feds, give a code, justify my decision, before I am allowed to prescribe.

Interesting. There are certainly other things that we can bring up about the regulation of supplements here eg. anyone can make a supplement on their kitchen table and sell it, but little of that snake oil or they'll be closed down in a heartbeat and have.