GlaxoSmithKline, the second-largest pharmaceutical company in the world and makers of many prescription and over-the-counter drugs has petitioned the FDA to classify weight loss claims for dietary supplements as ‘disease claims’.

Many believe that this is an effort by GlaxoSmithKline, makers of alli™, an over-the-counter weight loss drug, to quash competition from the dietary supplement weight loss industry.

Their petition is designed to accomplish this by making it illegal for dietary supplement products to make claims about aiding in weight loss, as by law supplements may not make claims about treating any disease. Many view this as another in a long line of legal attacks by the pharmaceutical industry on competing supplement products. Read the full petition by clicking here: (PDF 3.2 MB).

GlaxoSmithKline already has a questionable record of honesty. The FDA recently issued a warning to the company for not reporting safety results on its diabetes pill Avandia. Previously, the Senate Finance Committee found that GlaxoSmithKline intimidated and coerced a prominent critic of Avandia so that he would no longer speak critically of the drug. Just before that, it was alleged that the company systematically hid and manipulated data concerning Paxil-induced suicide in depressed adults.

Given the relative strength of the pharmaceutical industry, estimated at over $550 billion per year and rapidly growing, its political influence is significantly stronger than that of the dietary supplement industry. Protection of dietary supplements relies primarily on grassroots action from consumers concerned about protecting their rights and preserving access to safe products with few side-effects that often work as well or better than their drug counterparts.

Part of our mission at DSIB is to educate the public about issues related to dietary supplements. GlaxoSmithKline’s petition has huge implications for dietary supplements, and we feel that a negative ruling by the FDA could result in more attacks from pharmaceutical companies, and perhaps eventually the death knell for the dietary supplements industry.

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We look forward to hearing your point of view, and we’ll keep you updated on this and other key issues.

Thank you,
The Dietary Supplement Information Bureau