BIG PHARMA TROJAN HORSES PERMEATE SUPPLEMENT INDUSTRY

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BIG PHARMA TROJAN HORSES PERMEATE SUPPLEMENT INDUSTRY*

 

By Byron J. Richards, CCN

 

December 5, 2006

 

NewsWithViews.com

 

Today I received an e-mail from the Natural Products Association (NPA)

asking me to support the Dietary Supplement and Non-Prescription Drug

Consumer Protection Act (the " AER bill " ). Apparently they do not know I

am one of the most outspoken critics of this legislation. I have already

posted two articles on this topic for NWV, one in July

<http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron1.htm> and one in November

<http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron14.htm>. The NPA, formerly

the NNFA (National Nutritional Foods Association), is the largest trade

association for ingredient suppliers and health food stores. This group,

along with CRN (the Council for Responsible Nutrition) has been taken

over by Big Pharma and is selling out the supplement industry.

 

You as a consumer must weigh in on this subject before it is too late.

Your options for effective natural solutions are in serious jeopardy.

Immediate action is required to defend health freedom and your right to

have therapeutic choices in natural health options.

 

Unfortunately, it is up to " we the American people " to save the

supplement industry from traitorous groups pretending to be on your

side. There is a serious attempt underway to push this bill through

prior to the close of the lame duck session (apparently to end on

December 8). Click here to take action now

<http://www.thenhf.com/oppose_S3546_nhf_call_to_action_nov_2006.htm>,

tell your congressional leaders to vote no on S. 3546/H.R. 6168.

 

This is what the December 4, 2006, NPA e-mail stated:

 

We're contacting you because an important bill may soon be voted on

in Congress. This legislation, which the Natural Products

Association -- along with the other leading dietary supplement trade

groups -- supports, is, S. 3546 in the Senate and H.R. 6168 in the

House of Representatives.

*

Yes, these are the names of the bills and they are rotten to the core

for consumers and the supplement industry.*

 

Contrary to what you may have heard, this legislation will not

affect the availability of dietary supplements or lead to closures

of health food stores.

 

*Wrong, an outright lie! This legislation may drastically reduce the

availability of therapeutic supplements by linking them with adverse

effects actually caused by drugs. True, health food stores are not

likely to close. They will keep selling the lower quality Big Pharma

brands, like One-A-Day (Bayer) and Centrum (Wyeth). About 80% of the

supplement market is not really concerned about your health; this

includes big box stores, most network marketing companies, drug stores,

super markets, and internet fly-by-night operations. Big Pharma knows

these brands pose no competition to their monopolistic drug cartel.

Rather, Big Pharma wants all effective nutrition off the market -- the

really great products that fix diabetes, resolve depression, prevent

heart disease, enable weight loss, fix fibromyalgia, and help a person

survive cancer treatment. Big Pharma wants a sick America and will do

anything to keep people in poor health and on multiple toxic drugs.*

 

It's also important to remember that the legislation would require

only serious -- such as life threatening-- experiences, not just any

complaint, to be reported. And keep in mind that the government

already tracks adverse experiences that could be related to dietary

supplements.

 

*The FDA is currently unable to properly track adverse events caused by

drugs and does not even know which drugs are safe. Over 100,000

Americans are killed each year by drugs, and at least 3 million are

injured so severely it requires hospitalization. The FDA already has an

adequate MedWatch reporting system for serious adverse events for

dietary supplements. The proposed bill calls for supplement

manufacturers to keep track of all complaints any person reports,

serious or not, a standard far stricter than truly dangerous drugs! This

is absolutely absurd.*

 

If such legislation becomes law it will be used as a vehicle for the FDA

to remove supplements from the market based on hearsay data. There is no

mechanism in place for any supplement company to collect health

information on the person reporting, including existing medications or

health history.*This means the leg**islation can and will be used as a

witch hunt against effective natural options for health.* Certainly, the

lawyers at NPA and those supporting this bill are licking their chops at

all the business this legislation will generate for them.

 

What's new is that manufacturers who get reports of consumers being

seriously harmed by their products can't keep them secret. While we

believe such occurrences are extremely rare, if they do happen,

reporting is the right thing to do.

 

True serious adverse events from dietary supplements are extremely rare

and already covered by MedWatch. Any medical doctor or patient believing

a supplement has injured them can easily fill out a MedWatch form. No

one has any objection to serious AER reporting. That is not what this

bill is really all about. It is about gutting DSHEA (Dietary Supplement

Health and Education Act of 1994), the legislation that enables American

consumers to have more options for health than in any other country in

the world. By implying there is a safety problem (which there isn't) and

making supplement companies defend themselves, the burden of proof is

shifted from the FDA to supplement companies, thereby drastically

changing existing law in favor of Big Pharma and away from access to

natural health options granted by DSHEA. The FDA already does what it

can to discriminate against small and innovative companies

<http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron12.htm>.

 

If H.R. 6168 and S. 3546 are passed and become law, they will amend

the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to require the reporting of

" serious " adverse events for both over the counter (OTC) drugs and

dietary supplements to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

 

That is true. However, there is no way to differentiate between

drug-drug interactions, drug-nutrient interactions, or food poisoning,

meaning there is no way to accurately judge what is causing a problem.

Furthermore, the real issue is the safety of drugs, not supplements.

Until the FDA has a working system for drug safety, there is no way for

the FDA to judge supplement safety. There is a reason the Institute of

Medicine reported that the FDA is dysfunctional and not able to protect

Americans from harm. Its drugs!!!! -- not vitamins.

 

While the Natural Products Association understands that the

mandatory reporting requirements of the AER bill will add to

manufacturers' record keeping responsibilities, we believe the bill

will benefit the industry in the long run.

 

This opinion must be coming from the lawyers that stand to make a

fortune defending supplement companies from frivolous attacks relating

to non-serious adverse events. Also, doctors will attempt to blame

vitamins for the devastating side effects of their commonly prescribed

medications. Dangerous drugs, like statins

<http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron15.htm>, are in widespread

use and making many Americans very ill and even causing premature death.

When someone has heart failure from taking statins, doctors will try to

blame it on vitamin E. It would be a major travesty to pass legislation

that allows the side effects of dangerous drugs to be reported in such

as way as to remove safe and effective supplements from the market. The

Big Pharma goal is to maintain its monopoly at any cost. It is an agenda

based on drug sales and a callous disregard for human life.

 

First, by helping to change the perception by critics of the dietary

supplement industry that it is not well regulated.

 

This is the Big Lie <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie>. The truth is

that supplements are safer than food. Supplements are not drugs. Critics

of the dietary supplement industry are all getting a pile of money from

Big Pharma and they pretend to be upset about network marketing

companies making bogus health claims, companies with a history of paying

off Senators Hatch and Harkin for protection. Since most of these

companies that seemingly cause problems are members of CRN and NNFA, why

don't these junk trade organizations clean up their own members? There

is no need to put out of business the many nutritional companies

providing a true quality service to millions of Americans in true need

of real help, unless of course you are simply trying to put your own

competition out of business.

 

Second, over time, the recordkeeping and reporting requirements will

substantiate what many in the industry have been saying all along --

that the safety record of dietary supplements is exemplary,

especially when compared to other health-related products.

 

Obviously, true serious AERs will be very infrequent, unlike the several

thousand people dying each week at the hands of Big Pharma. However, the

recordkeeping requirement for non-serious adverse events opens the door

for unlimited FDA harassment of any company. Since the FDA is currently

bought and paid for by Big Pharma, that is a huge problem.

 

Ultimately, safety reporting is the right thing to do for a

responsible industry that puts consumers first.

 

In a world where Big Pharma and the FDA have spent decades trying to

obliterate competition, such a naïve statement is designed to appeal to

" reasonableness " and " political correctness. " NPA has no concept of

integrity to the US Constitution or what makes America great. If anyone

wants to believe the utopian garbage put forth by NPA, try to get the

statement to apply to Big Pharma.

 

 

<http://www.newswithviews.com/DonateNWV.htm>

 

The e-mail is then signed by the Natural Products Association. Yes, not

one person in this pathetic group had the nerve to put their name on

this embarrassing e-mail. I wonder who wrote it. Was it Senator Hatch's

younger son who works at NPA? Was it Senator Hatch's older son who

lobbies for NPA? Or was it one of the Big Pharma members sitting on the

NPA board? Companies supporting this horrid legislation and the related

anti-American globalization agenda of Codex Alimentarius include

Mannatech, Herbalife, Shacklee, Now Foods, Dr. Weil Vitamins, Jarrow,

and many more.

 

 

<newsforyou-list-

 

Besides faxing, phoning, and e-mailing Congress to vote no on S.3546,

any person purchasing supplements should demand that whomever they buy

supplements from is not a member of CRN or NPA. Health food stores and

ingredient suppliers should withdraw from these bogus Big Pharma

pro-globalization organizations. If you need more facts to convince you

of the magnitude of this problem, read my book /Fight for Your Health:

Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America./

<http://www.newswithviews.com/HNB/Hot_New_Books32.htm> If you buy

supplements from such companies or stores then answer this simple

question: why are you paying money to be shot in the back?

 

© 2006 Truth in Wellness <http://www.truthinwellness.com/>, LLC - All

Rights Reserved

 

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