Dangerous dietary supplements will disappear: how the new law will change the market for dietary supplements

Ukraine will strengthen control over the turnover of dietary supplements. In particular, they plan to remove from the market those that contain dangerous pharmaceutical ingredients or unverified combinations. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Health, Chief Sanitary doctor Igor Kuzin in an interview, reports UNN.

"In fact, we are talking about fairly well-known dietary supplements. Many Ukrainians buy them in a pharmacy chain, many - in specialized stores or order them through services on the internet," Kuzin explained.

He clarified that we are talking about dietary supplements.

"And in fact, the European Union has several basic regulations that prescribe mechanisms and approaches to regulating the turnover of such food products. The first thing you need to pay attention to is not a medicine, but a food product. Therefore, the adopted law, which comprehensively regulates all legal relations, concerns the turnover of such food products. If you see any medicine that says "dietary supplement" or "dietary supplement", understand that it is a food product," Kuzin said.

What changes?

Kuzin noted that the law introduces additional restrictions to make it impossible to sell dietary supplements with pharmaceutical ingredients.

"Some business entities are trying to bring pharmaceutical ingredients to the market under the guise of dietary supplements. For example, take a regular anti-inflammatory drug, put it in the form of a dietary supplement, and sell it as a food product. This is dangerous for health, and also disrupts competition among pharmaceutical manufacturers," Kuzin added.

According to him, after the adoption of this bill, which has already been approved by the parliament and is awaiting signature by the president, the Ministry of Health will approve the list of permitted chemicals (minerals, vitamins and other components) that can be used in dietary supplements.

What will happen to other supplements?

"Everything that is not included in the list is not allowed for circulation. Such products must pass a special procedure for assessing the impact on human health, and only after that they can be allowed to enter the market," the deputy minister of Health said.

Thus, dietary supplements containing active pharmaceutical ingredients, dangerous unverified combinations or complex complexes will be gradually withdrawn from the market.

Why is this important?

Kuzin noted that this regulation arose due to an increase in the number of cases of toxic liver damage caused by the independent use of dietary supplements in the world.

Recall

The Verkhovna Rada in the second reading supported a bill that improves control over food supplements, that is, Dietary Supplements.