AHPA’s McGuffin: We oppose the reorganization of FDA’s food and supplements program
Speaking with NutraIngredients-USA, Michael McGuffin, AHPA’s President, said the association’s board met last week and decided it will communicate to the Food & Drug Administration and Congressional offices opposition to any reorganization of FDA’s Human Food program that subsumes the Office of Dietary Supplement Programs.
“It seems dismissive of the really good progress that Office has made over the last few years in building its staffing, in building its expertise, in building its relationships, and now do we have to create all of that over again?
“We like the status quo, and we’ll continue to support the status quo.”
CBD
McGuffin also discussed the lack of progress at Federal level to effectively regulate hemp-derived CBD for use in dietary supplements.
“If left to its own devices, apparently FDA will continue to avoid taking responsibility for regulating hemp and CBD dietary supplements. Or, and this is how we will review this new harm-reduction framework, it will attempt to hold CBD hostage in order to get this new authority. The truth is, a new pathway is not necessary for the regulation of dietary supplements that consist of or contain CBD,” he said.
“It’s hard to understand how the Agency got here. Either they don’t understand their own regulatory authority, which is highly unlikely, or they’re deliberately misrepresenting their authority with regard to dietary supplements.
McGuffin said AHPA would continue to support H.R. 1629, that would remove the prior drug restriction.
Some industry stakeholders suggest FDA’s approach to Tobacco is a good way to view the Agency’s harm-reduction approach to CBD. Such a view of CBD is inappropriate, Said McGuffin.
“Hemp is just another herb. CBD is just another herb constituent. Read the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act, as amended by the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act – these fit really neatly in this framework.
“Is the Tobacco model good for high THC cannabis? That might make sense, but no, not for these food ingredients.”
State-led initiatives
During the wide-ranging interview, Robert Marriott, AHPA’s Director of Regulatory Affairs, discussed the various State-led bills to restrict access to weight management and muscle building supplements to people under 18.
“AHPA applies a general policy of opposition to Bills that would restrict these products in a category-by-category, state-by-state fashion,” he said. “The reason these Bills keep emerging, is that they’re all coming from the same source: There’s an entity at Harvard, the STRIPED, the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders. STRIPED has pushed out a false belief about these products, and our playbook involved pushing back on these beliefs.”
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