Supply Side East preview

This is a much smaller event that its west coast counterpart, attracting around three and a half thousand attendees, but that usually gives it a more compact and personal feel. The educational program is small, but rich and manageable, and will be covering some of the key issues affecting the industry today.

Amongst these are the new GMP regulations, which most supplements firms will have to comply with by June this year. As we speak, the trade group NPA is hosting a GMP training course, which lasts until noon tomorrow and which will examine the impact of the rule and the consequences of non-compliance.

Another session tomorrow morning will provide some guidance on how to handle an inspection from FDA, which, as of June, could happen to any supplements company with over 20 employees.

I’ll be poking my head into both of those, and I’ll report back with updates, so keep your eyes on these pages.

I’ll also be attending a session on the latest in adverse event reporting, which has been subject to much tighter rules over the past year, so we’ll hear about how that’s been going and what challenges remain.

The classic State of the Industry sessions are traditionally amongst the best attended talks as they fly the red flag over things to watch out for. They’ll be taking place on Wednesday, and will be presented by the heads of the leading trade groups – NPA, CRN and AHPA.

But even better attended will almost certainly be the FDA update, provided as always by the director of the agency’s Division of Dietary Supplement Programs Dr Vasilios Frankos. Dr Frankos will be talking about what FDA is doing with regard to GMPs, and with a bit of luck the Q&A session will be a good chance to get answers to some of your unanswered questions.

Those are just some of the events I’ll be attending and reporting on. The show floor is open on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, and although ingredient innovation has on the whole slowed down this year, business in our industry is still going strong, so this will hopefully be reflected on the floor.

If you have anything new and exiting to share and you’d like to meet me over the next few days, send me an e-mail via the ‘Have your say’ button at the bottom of any article on this site.