As big retail companies selling herbal supplements have become the focus of an investigation by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, small businesses and pharmacies have seen little change in their business.
- Photo by Mike Mozart
In early February, Schneiderman announced his office had sent four cease-and-desist orders to major retailers GNC, Walmart, Target and Walgreens asking them to stop selling products from certain supplement companies after finding that the ingredients in some products did not match up with labels.
Pennsylvania-based GNC and Schneiderman”™s office announced on March 30 that they had reached an agreement to reforms including using a better process to authenticate ingredients, implementing testing for common allergens, creating more transparency on the herbs or extracts used in products and providing semiannual reports to Schneiderman”™s office.
The agreement will apply to GNC”™s 6,000 stores.
A pharmacist at Saxon Chemists Inc. in White Plains said the pharmacy doesn”™t have a high demand in customers looking for herbal supplement products.
“One person, maybe, once in a blue moon they will ask for herbal supplements,” said Dhara Modi, a pharmacist at Saxon.
And that seemed to be the case for other small pharmacies in Fairfield County, Conn., as well.
“We don”™t do much with herbal medicine to be honest with you,” an owner at Southport-based Switzer”™s Pharmacy said.
“I know New York was having some problems with it,” said Ed Karvosky, owner of Bissell Pharmacy in Ridgefield. “But it hasn”™t affected us.”
In the agreement with GNC, Schneiderman”™s office conceded that the retailer”™s products were within the parameters set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The sufficiency of the FDA”™s rules, however, is the basis for a 14-member attorneys general coalition Schneiderman and Indiana”™s attorney general formed, a group that includes Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen.
In an April 2 letter to Congress, the group urged legislators to “launch a comprehensive congressional inquiry into the herbal supplements industry, and to weigh a more robust oversight role for the Food and Drug Administration.”
