Pieter A. Cohen American Roulette - Contaminated Dietary
Supplements. N Engl J Med 2009; 361:1523-1525, 15 October, 2009.
In August 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovered products, most of them labeled as dietary supplements, that contain a wide variety of undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredients. Now, more than 140 contaminated products have been identified, but these represent only a fraction of the contaminated supplements on the market. Unfortunately, lenient regulatory oversight of dietary supplements, combined with the FDA's lack of resources, has created a marketplace in which manufacturers can introduce hazardous new products with virtual impunity. Although manufacturers have since 2007 been required to report serious supplement related adverse events to the FDA, the great majority of the estimated 50,000 adverse events that occur annually remain unreported.