Regulation of Drugs and Dietary Supplements

Do you think that dietary supplements should be regulated in a manner similar to FDA-regulated drugs? Explain why or why not.

Dietary ingredients and finished dietary supplement products are both regulated by the FDA, only that they are not regulated under the same set of regulations; rigorous testing and auditing criteria, used to regulate traditional food and drug products. With standards developed into the USP Dietary Supplements Compendium alongside other references resources, regulators, manufacturers, and suppliers can identify, determine, and safeguard the purity, quality, strength, and identity of dietary ingredients and products. In the United States, the FDA has mandate to enforce the drug product and ingredients standards provided by the USP, unfortunately these strict scientific and regulatory standards do not apply to dietary supplements. For dietary supplements, the FDA prohibits distributors and manufacturers from misbranded and adulterated products. Evaluation of the labeling and the safety of these dietary supplements as per regulations provided by the FDA and DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994) is thus the responsibility of the manufacturing and the distributing firms.

Consumers of these dietary supplements need to rest assured that the kind of ingredients listed on the label and that the amount and strengths indicated are accurate.The need to be sure that whichever supplements they choose to ingest do not constitute harmful levels of specified contaminants. Most importantly when the FDA subjects these dietary supplements to rigorous testing and auditing criteria, consumers can be assured that sanitary and well-controlled process were used towards good manufacturing practices.Yes. I think that dietary supplements should be regulated in a manner similar to FDA-regulated drugs to avoid challenging consumer trust through misleading health claims and use of contaminants at levels that are potentially harmful. It is necessary to ensure that dietary supplement products comply with strict evaluation and testing criteria to in order to diminish opportunities for supplements of poor quality to enter the market.

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