Standards Attract Pharmaceutical Attention

SAN FRANCISCO—The natural products industry may get help from a pharmaceutical group in further establishing scientific standards for supplements.

At the November meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), incoming president Larry Augsburger, Ph.D., said the organization should advocate good scientific research for dietary supplements. With the AAPS's scientific expertise, he said, the organization can offer sound recommendations for manufacturing standards.

The issue of standards is important and is something many groups in and out of the natural products industry have recognized. Several, including the U.S. Pharmacopeia and the AHP, are publishing monographs, while others including CRN and AHPA have released reference documents on the evaluation, use and labeling of botanicals. In a cooperative effort to standardize botanical testing methods, Industrial Laboratories of Denver, Colo., formed the Institute for Nutraceutical Advancement, a noncorporate division funded by 26 industry members. Four labs began evaluating testing methods last fall.