WASHINGTON – The Natural Products Association (NPA) sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, urging the committee to drop dietary supplement provisions from the Safety and Landmark Advancement Act (FDASLA).
“As the former Director of the Division of Dietary Supplement Programs and now an industry executive, I write to you with grave concerns about the FDA Safety and Landmark Advancement Act (FDASLA) and its inclusion of dietary supplement provisions. In the history of the user-fee reauthorization, dietary supplements have never been included, and rightfully so. Dietary supplements are not prescription drugs, generic drugs, biosimilars, or medical devices, which the reauthorization has always been intended to cover. Additionally, our industry has never paid user fees,” wrote Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D. president and CEO of the Natural Products Association.
“I can tell you during my time as the chief regulator for dietary supplements, when we had some of the most impactful enforcement actions in the program’s history, we had more than adequate tools to find a specific problem with a product or ingredient; this is why NPA has opposed the Dietary Supplement Listing Act of 2022 and the provisions in the FDASLA.”
“The Committee has made it quite clear to the public it is frustrated with FDA’s inaction across several different streams, including the most recent baby formula crisis. So it begs the question as to why Congress would support providing an Agency with new regulatory authorities and $33 million through this ill-advised proposal when the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition is incapable of efficiently using its current sources?”
“The NPA strongly urges the committee to drop this section and re-direct the authorized spending to higher priority challenges faced by CFSAN. The FDASLA provides the FDA with an excessive administrative burden that exceeds the current scientific safety evaluation for FDA when companies wish to introduce a new supplement into the market. Providing the FDA with authority to decide administratively what is to be listed will only be abused, causing extreme economic harm. Additionally, suppose there is any disagreement between the industry and the FDA on the ingredient’s status rather than a scientific rendering. In that case, the FDA can eliminate a product from a listing and the marketplace.”
