FDA Ready to Regulate Dietary-Aid Factories

Eco112 Homework 2

Read the following article from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Use short-run costs curves for “supplements” both before and after the introduction of the new regulations. Explain your analysis including a discussion of fixed and variable costs. You do not have to account for every single fact, just provide a fairly complete description of the general themes.

Your answer must be typed (double spaced, 12 pt font, and 1” margins), free of grammatical and typographical errors, and no more than one page of text. Put diagrams on a separate page. Staple everything together before class. Submit old homework in a folder along with the current assignment.

Posted on Sat, Mar. 08, 2003

FDA ready to regulate dietary-aid factories

By Lauran Neergaard

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Millions of users of St. John's wort, calcium, and other dietary supplements may soon know for sure that they are getting what they pay for. The government yesterday proposed the first manufacturing standards for the $19 billion supplement industry in an attempt to cut fraud and contamination.

There still will be no guarantee that the pills and powders deliver the benefits advertised or are even safe to swallow. Unlike drugs, supplements can be sold without any scientific proof of their safety or effectiveness.

But the Food and Drug Administration's long-expected factory rules seek to ensure that the ingredients and dosages promised on the bottle really are contained inside - without dangerous contaminants such as bacteria and brain-damaging lead that have been found in some.

Supplement-makers are exempt from most safety oversight because of a 1994 law. Nor has there even been federal quality control: Over and over in recent years, scientists and consumer groups have uncovered fraud when testing various types and brands.

The FDA cited a bee product found to be contaminated with lead, and a brand of folic acid - essential during pregnancy to reduce certain birth defects - that contained only a third of the promised dose, meaning women consumed too little for their protection.

In another example, California researchers tested 12 different body-building supplements and found that only one contained the amount of androstenedione or related ingredients promised on the bottle..

The new manufacturing standards seek to prevent such problems with, among other things, certain quality-control steps requiring company testing of ingredients and finished products to verify purity and dose. Also mandated are improvements in labeling and better ways of handling consumer complaints.

The FDA characterized the rules as a mix of standards now required for foods and over-the-counter drugs such as aspirin.

The proposal is "a step in the right direction," said Bruce Silverglade of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. But the rules will not ensure that a supplement is completely safe, just that it has no impurities, he cautioned.

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