Nutritional supplements versus Pharmaceuticals

[Guest guest]

http://www.hfn-usa.com/articles/spu118-david.html

 

David and Goliath: Nutritional supplements versus Pharmaceuticals

 

The United States’ $100 billion drug industry —the most profitable industry in

the nation—has held medicine captive for years. Why? Because the cost involved

in approving a drug in the USA is so high, the drug must demand a price high

enough to recoup the costs. And one of the ways to do that is with patent

protection.

 

Federal intellectual-property-protection laws provide new brand-name drugs with

effective patent lives of about 13 to 15 years. EDTA, for example, was proven

safe by the FDA and patented as a pharmaceutical. But the patent on EDTA expired

many years ago. Consequently, it is now considered a generic drug that any drug

company can manufacture and sell … and is also used as a food additive, because

of its antioxidant properties, and as a nutritional supplement.

 

Why haven’t I heard about

EDTA from my doctor?

 

Because EDTA and other nutritional supplements do not have patents and are not

promoted by pharmaceutical companies.

 

The huge profits that the pharmaceutical company made in producing EDTA have

dried up—which means that the pharmaceutical company’s ambitious campaigns to

market the product to doctors have stopped—so doctors are unfamiliar with EDTA’s

benefits as a chelator.

 

Also, pharmaceutical companies are now off and running to produce comparable

chelators that they can patent and sell for a higher profit. And these

pharmaceutical companies are bad-mouthing EDTA, simply because they can’t get

the patent and don’t want it competing with any future oral chelating products

they may produce.

 

Typically, this is what happens when a patent expires. You may have taken a

particular drug for 15 years, been happy with the results, and all of a sudden

it’s taken off the market because its patent expires. The pharmaceutical company

begins manufacturing a comparable drug and markets it as " better, more

technically advanced, cutting edge, " etc. But you take the drug and don’t notice

a significant difference. Why? Because it isn’t really any better. It’s just

that the company needs to show a profit, and since it lost the patent on the

original drug you were taking, it has to disparage the old drug in order to gain

your trust and acceptance of the new drug.

 

 

 

Why isn’t there more research to

support the benefits of EDTA?

 

Simply because it would cost millions of dollars for double-blind studies to

prove its effectiveness. And without patent protection, there are no

pharmaceutical manufacturers that would fund the research.

 

Also, " The cost and time required for research of that scope is beyond the

resources of the clinicians in private practice who utilize chelation therapy.

EDTA chelation therapy has therefore been an ‘orphan’ without a source of

financial support for research, " says James P. Carter, MD, PhD, Professor and

Head of the Nutrition Section, Tulane University School of Public Health and

Tropical Medicine, New Orleans. ( " If EDTA Chelation is so good, why is it not

widely accepted? " Journal of Advancement in Medicine, Volume 2, Numbers 1/2,

Spring/Summer 1989pages 213-226.)

 

" It costs a drug company millions of dollars for research and paperwork to

satisfy FDA requirements for the addition of a new therapeutic claim to the

package insert of an established drug. No company will spend the money without

the ability to recover those costs in the marketplace. This lack of FDA approval

for atherosclerosis is commonly used against physicians by opponents of

chelation, " adds Dr. Carter.

 

Where does that leave

nutritional supplements?

 

Essentially, patent laws shield the pharmaceutical industry from competition in

the making and marketing of drugs and supplements. Patent laws discourage

pharmaceutical companies from developing natural treatments, and natural

compounds can not have full patent protection, and therefore are rarely

developed into drugs—which means they are not promoted by doctors, who rarely

learn about them.

 

Take responsibility for your health

 

It’s up to you, then, to take responsibility for your own health. Educate

yourself about nutritional supplements. Read about the latest studies and

research on supplements such as EDTA in publications like Smart Publications’

Health & Wellness Update. Learn how to sort through the pharmaceutical

industry’s advertising hype. And listen more closely to the small, but powerful

voice of the nutritional supplement world. It will make a huge difference in

your health … and your life.

 

 

Gettingwell- / Vitamins, Herbs, Aminos, etc.

 

To , e-mail to: Gettingwell-

Or, go to our group site: Gettingwell

 

 

 

 

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