Medical Foods

Continued from Yesterday

Dave Kronlage, vice president, marketing, PamLab LLC, noted distributing its products through the pharmaceutical distribution chains requires a prescription and is more stringent than the medical-food regulations. Another challenge in using this channel is pharmacists who use certain compendiums, such as First Database, Medispan and Gold Standard, to recommend a cheaper, generic brand to patients, which may not be pharmaceutically or biologically equivalent to a prescribed medical food. “Drug databases do not verify quality or confirm the actual content of generic pharmaceutical products,” Kronlage said, adding, “We have evidence that demonstrates several specific generic medical foods are not safe or effective. Quality generic pharmaceuticals benefit patients, but there is no room for generics that include adulterated or unverified ingredients. Patients who take unverified generics, which contain adulterated ingredients, are being put at risk. An adulterated ‘fake generic’ product can be substituted for a prescribed-brand medical food without the patient or prescribing physician knowing about it.”

Receiving an ineffective, or even adulterated, medical food can be a serious health hazard, as medical-food consumers rely on them to address their decreased nutrition status. For instance, GanedenBC30®, the brand name of Ganeden Biotech’s patented probiotic strain of Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086, is used in medical foods, functional foods and dietary supplements for its immune and digestive health benefits. A 2009 study showed it increases the body's immune response to viruses that cause common viral respiratory tract infections, such as colds and the flu (Postgrad Med. 2009 Mar;121(2):114-8); later that year, a clinical study published in BMC Gastroenterology (2009 Nov 18;9:85) found GanedenBC30 was significantly more effective than placebo in providing relief to subjects suffering from intestinal gas.

Continued Tomorrow

http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/articles/2010/10/medical-foods-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place.aspx

http://www.depsyl.com/

http://back2basicnutrition.com/

http://bionutritionalresearch.olhblogspace.com/