The Natural Products Association (NPA) and UL have announced a new partnership to certify Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for dietary supplement makers.
Costa Mesa-based Alkemist Labs has expanded its reference material offerings to include phytochemical reference standards from France-based Extrasynthese.
Xymogen, a dietary supplement manufacturer that specializing in the practitioner channel, has announced a growth milestone with $7 million in revenue realized in the month of January. The company said this is the third consecutive January in which it...
A new testing firm has debuted that the founder and CEO says will offer a way to judge ingredients based not just on their chemical profiles but on their actual biological activity.
Updated: NBTY appreciates AG's efforts & will comply. "We are confident that our products meet our label claims"
NY AG Eric Schneiderman has extended his investigation into herbal supplements by sending letters to four leading manufacturers demanding detailed ingredient and quality control information on every herbal supplement they sell in his state.
As the issue of mandatory GMO labeling looms ever larger on the radar of the dietary supplements industry, so too looms the question of supply of non GMO ingredients. The main active ingredients in supplements are for the most part of little concern,...
The NY Attorney General's actions are forcing companies to think more deeply about their ingredient testing, which should lead to a faster adoption of effective testing protocols for insuring the purity of chondroitin ingredients, said the CEO of...
The United Natural Products Alliance has announced a new insurance program designed especially for the needs of the dietary supplements industry. The program takes a detailed look at company operations in the rate setting process and qualifying for the...
Twinlab Consolidated Holdings has acquired the book of business of contract manufacturer Nutricap Labs in a deal that will solidify the plan to maintain the company’s in-house manufacturing capacity, Twinlab CEO Tom Tolworthy said.
The New York AG affair has revealed a gulf: While the majority of Americans say they use dietary supplements, few of them understand much about how they’re made, or regulated. This gulf exists among pharmacists and physicians too, a recent survey revealed.
Citing shortcomings in the way the New York Attorney General’s office relied on DNA barcoding in its recent action is all well and good, but having a more proactive method to engage law enforcement authorities and mainstream media figures on issues of...
GNC Holdings reported declining sales in the fourth quarter and for its full 2014 fiscal year. CEO Michael Archbold attributed the declines to changes in pricing, revamping of stores’ product mix and lower manufacturing volume in an effort to match inventory...
The dietary supplement industry might eventually come out ahead in the public relations battle over the fallout caused by the actions of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. But that shouldn’t paper over the fact that serious questions about the...
Despite the prominent black eye suffered by the dietary supplement industry in the recent New York Attorney General affair, increased demand for testing services is a sign the industry is taking quality seriously and is getting better, according to Alkemist...
An Oregon-based marketer of dietary supplements has been slapped with a permanent injuction for distributing prodcts that the Food and Drug Administration alleged were adulterated and were unapproved new drugs.
The high rate of failure in New Dietary Ingredient notifications has led some companies to seek workarounds. Anecdotal evidence gathered by NutraIngredients-USA shows that companies are increasingly leaning on GRAS status as a way to avoid having to enter...
The New York Attorney General’s results of his herbal supplement investigation are “unbelievable”, says Harvard’s Dr Pieter Cohen. “I think that this does not ring true,” he told NutraIngredients-USA.
The budget request from the White House for the Food and Drug Administration is part of President Obama’s overall budget that will not see the light of day. Nevertheless, the massive document does include priorities that are likely to be addressed in...
The issue of “protein spiking” has led companies in the sports nutrition sphere to start to differentiate their products based on the quality and transparency of their ingredients and to rely less on marketing-driven messages of the products’ muscle-boosting...
The New York state attorney general’s investigation into allegedly substandard herbal dietary supplements was flawed from the start by an inexplicable failure to refer to national standards established for the testing of such products, experts say.
A recent FDA warning letter to a company making products based on whole dandelion parts and other herbs seems to call into question whether organoleptic identification of incoming botanical specimens still passes muster as far as the agency is concerned....
By Michael McGuffin, president, American Herbal Products Association
The herbal products industry can expect several recent trends to continue in 2015, but there are also some significant changes on the horizon. Here are a few things the industry can look for in 2015.
As part of a second phase of its Botanical Adulterants Program, The American Botanical Council has released the first of a series of laboratory guidance documents, this one pertaining to the herb skullcap. First, the program alerted industry as to what...
By Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D., CEO and Executive Director of the Natural Products Association
As with any new year, January is a time for looking ahead and getting in front of obstacles before they arise. Many mistakenly believe that a new year means new, unexpected challenges, but reality the year’s tests and trials – both internal and external...
The recall last last year of a probiotic product found to be contaminated with a fungus should not cast a pall over the entire sector, experts say. Though they are products consisting of cultured microorganisms, probiotic ingredients are no more at risk...
By Loren Israelsen, president of the United Natural Products Alliance
On the cusp of its 30th anniversary, there’s been a lot of talk about the look forward provided by the 1985 movie, Back to the Future. A similar look back at the natural health products industry to see the future is not such a far-fetched idea. A number...
The leaders of the five trade organizations most closely associated with the dietary supplement industry offered their input to NutraIngredients-USA on what the big lessons industry should learn from the events of 2014.
As we enter the twilight days of 2014 the editors of NutraIngredients-USA become a reflective bunch. A lot of things happened this year, and here is our top 10 of most important events of 2014…
Dietary supplement manufacturing giant Pharmavite LLC has made a big move into natural channel supplements with its acquisition of whole food supplement manufacturer FoodState Inc. Pharmavite acquired the company from the private equity firm 2X Consumer...
The owner of a dietary supplement company has pleaded guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the sale of diluted and adulterated ingredients and supplements. The plea deal comes with an agreement to pay a fine that exceeds $1 million.
Increased demand for contract manufacturing services has led Axiom Nutraceuticals to retrofit a recently acquired facility to bring its manufacturing footprint to more than 100,000 square feet, the company announced recently.
Preliminary data from consultant Marian Boardley, who tracks trends in FDA inspection reports, shows that overall 483 citations are down. But she cautions that many of the observations still fall under the very basic lack of specifications and other process...
The dietary supplements industry needs to engage with journalists to change the conversation and not run ad campaigns about media reporting, says the CEO of SmartyPants, Inc.
The Natural Products Association (NPA) and UL are partnering on a new education alliance to ‘raise the bar’ for dietary supplement manufacturers, distributors, auditors, retailers and other industry stakeholders.
Nutraceutical International Corporation, a Park City, UT-based dietary supplement manufacturer, reported yearly sales results that reflected the ongoing softness in the sector. The company reported sales growth in its fourth quarter and its fiscal year...
In designing a clinical trial strategy its important to keep end points in mind—and it’s not just avoiding disease endpoints we’re talking here. It’s vital to end up with information that can aid in the marketing of the product, experts say.
Protein fortification is a red hot trend in the market, but one formulation expert questions whether all of the information on the protein portions of those product labels is being reported correctly.
The need to get higher returns on investment capital that has lain idle is driving the ongoing consolidation in the sphere of analytical testing according to Dave Kliber, CEO of SF Analytical Laboratories, which was recently acquired by multinational...
Scilabs Nutraceuticals Inc., a California dietary supplement company, has been slapped with a permanent injunction after failing three rounds of FDA inspections and receiving a warning letter in 2013.
Warning letters are the regulatory tea leaves of the dietary supplements business and the Council for Responsible Nutrition has launched a new tool that will help industry read what they have to tell.
A new force has appeared on the contract manufacturing scene with the formation of Capstone Nutrition, which is an amalgamation of Integrity Nutraceuticals in Spring Hill, TN and Cornerstone Research & Development in Ogden, UT. Both companies were...
By Daniel Fabricant, PhD, CEO and Executive Director, Natural Products Association
While we should certainly take a second to pause and reflect in honor of the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), it’s important to keep in mind that the industry as a beacon of growth must focus...
Leading chondroitin sulfate supplier Synutra Ingredients has announced the publication of the ‘most effective testing protocols for insuring the purity of chondroitin ingredients’, with the UNPA moving quickly to advise its members to adopt the method.
A recent study found that numerous recalled supplements lingered on the market for months or even years after their recall dates. The nature of recalls supplies part of the reason why this is the case. Getting products off the market via a recall is a...
Import refusals by the Food and Drug Administration are ramping up and are likely to become more common as some of the rules associated with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) kick into gear in the coming year, said an executive with a labeling...
Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association, has a unique perspective on the 20th anniversary of DSHEA having started in the herbal products industry in 1974, twenty years before the law was passed. The law, as he sees it,...
The dietary supplement business has gone from fighting for its life to enjoying the fruits of an open, dynamic marketplace, and it’s all because of DSHEA, according to Loren Isrealsen, president of the United Natural Products Alliance.
The 20th anniversary of the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA) is ‘monumental’, says Steve Mister from the CRN, but the industry shouldn’t rest on its laurels too long. ‘The important thing is to figure out what change is necessary to...
Despite ongoing vacancies in the main office of the Division of Dietary Supplements, companies must continue to build relationships with FDA’s district offices to ensure ongoing GMP compliance, says Dr Daniel Fabricant, CEO of the Natural Products Association.
Reporting adverse events is something all dietary supplement companies must prepared to do to be in compliance with the law. But beyond that basic requirement, companies that fully embrace an AER system can use it to provide valuable market data, an...
