New research shows the majority of drug recalls by the FDA are for dietary supplements rather than pharmaceutical drugs. The popular products used for everything from weight loss to sexual enhancement sometimes contain unapproved ingredients, including trace amounts of pharmaceuticals.
Americans spend billions a year on supplements, but the products are not required to go through any approval process by the Food and Drug Administration. Should that change? Would the FDA process unfairly slow or inhibit development of supplements? No adverse events were noted in the list of recalls, but are side effects too hard to track?
Guests:
Dr. Sidney Wolfe, M.D., Founder and Director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group; Member of the Food and Drug Administration's Drug Safety and Risk Management Committee since August 2008
Marc Ullman, Attorney specializing in food and drug law with a concentration on natural products; his firm Ullman, Shapiro & Ullman, represents several supplements companies
Muhammad Mamdani, Researcher on the JAMA study; Researcher, St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada