The Natural Products Association (NPA) recently asked Congress to reject the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) budget request for a product registration system for nutritional supplements, as it’s unclear of what value is added to the agency’s mission of promoting and protecting public health.     

“The administration has been clear that they want to unburden industry from unnecessary regulatory requirements and now we have the FDA without a permanent head asking for money and power without any clear reason that their wants will benefit public health, which is completely at odds with the administration,” said Daniel Fabricant, PhD, president and CEO of NPA. “The agency currently has access to labels via inspections and other means. Does this mean the agency isn’t using that authority or that information? Why is that behavior going to be rewarded? Any discussion of a national registry for nutritional supplements must start with preemption of state laws, otherwise it is a waste of taxpayer dollars, will be significantly burdensome to small businesses, and will do nothing to protect consumers. The FDA should also use the resources it already has to act on things like CBD enforcement and NDI (new dietary ingredient) intellectual property protection.”

The NIH (National Institutes of Health) Office of Dietary Supplements has a voluntary label submission portal in place. Furthermore, FDA inspectors routinely collect dietary supplement product labels during good manufacturing practice inspections and log them into the agency’s Compliance Management System (CMS) database. Labels are also currently collected by the agency for issuance of certificates of free sale.

For more information, visit www.npanational.org.