VMS sales steady despite media hit
Steve Mister, president and CEO for the Council for Responsible Nutrition
The credibility of the vitamins, minerals and supplements business has been attacked in recent months, with the New York Attorney General’s office in February claiming certain herbal supplements don’t contain what they purport to contain and are adulterated with undeclared ingredients, followed more recently by HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” in May reporting that the nation’s military is being duped into taking unsafe supplements by an “unregulated” industry that lobbies heavily for loose regulations.
Neither story has had a direct impact on sales of overall supplements. Current sales fluctuations can be attributed as much to weather and seasonality as to anything else, Steve Mister, president and CEO for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, told Drug Store News. But these stories are impacting the industry’s credibility among consumers and may deter new users. In coming years, that can place a drag on the growth of VMS in retail pharmacy outlets where new customers are likely to buy their first supplements, Mister said.
DSN recently interviewed Mister about the myths and realities of the supplement business.
Myth: The dietary supplement industry is either unregulated or under-regulated.
Reality: The reality is there are very comprehensive regulations around this industry that cover everything from the labeling to the manufacturing processes to the testing of raw materials. ... The reality is the Food and Drug Administration often does not rigorously enforce the law, despite the fact that they have tools available to them and that we have outlier companies who will violate the law.
Myth: The FDA has a funding issue, and enforcing the dietary supplement regulations is low on the priority list.
Reality: That is the reality. First of all, there is a tremendous lack of resources at the agency to do all of the things that are required. And the reality also is that they do put their resources where there is the [greatest] threat to public health. ... Despite all of the things that people say about dietary supplements, by comparison we’re a pretty safe, regulated industry for the FDA. We have relatively few adverse events. ...
Myth: The dietary supplement industry is like the ‘wild, wild west’ in that the players will do whatever they want to do without regard to the law.
Reality: The reality is we are a far cry from the wild west. ... There are very minute regulations around our labeling and what has to be in the Supplement Facts panel. And the majority of companies within the industry want to do right by their consumers; they want to follow the law, and they abide by those requirements.
Myth: Supplements don’t work.
Reality: People who say that don’t really understand the science behind them and what they’re intended to do. Supplements are not intended to be drugs; if they were, they’d be regulated like drugs. But that doesn’t mean they do not provide nutrition; that they don’t fill in gaps; that they don’t provide more subtle ways for your body to stay healthy.
Myth: Supplements don’t contain what the label says they contain.
Reality: This is an issue that, on the one hand, the industry has been wrestling with for several years because we have products from these outlying players that are spiked with pharmaceuticals or with anabolic steroids, for example. The only way for consumers to really respond to that is to be very savvy in their purchases, buy from reputable companies and not buy products that seem to be making [immediate gratification] claims. ...
On the other hand, there are concerns in the industry about the supply chain. ... If anything good has come out of this New York investigation, it is that it has gotten the industry talking more about the integrity of supply chains and the importance of identity testing. But I don’t want to give an ounce of credibility to the New York [Attorney General]’s investigation because the more we learn about that investigation, the more we know that all those accusations were built on faulty tests. It’s a house of cards.