From Scrutiny to Strength

Shaping the Future of Supplements in 2025

CRN Members,

Let me start by wishing you a very happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. I hope your 2025 is off to a great start. But now, down to business. I want to ensure all CRN members are preparing for the new political environment. As I recently wrote in an article for Whole Foods magazine, “It’s the best of times; and it’s the worst of times.” Savvy companies will be preparing for both.

Dietary supplements typically benefit from a sales boost in January, with many consumers making resolutions for a healthier lifestyle in the new year. And unfortunately, that usually brings with it a spike in negative news media coverage of the industry, too, with sensational titles like:

• “Nutritional supplements and vitamins are more popular than ever. Do they work?”
• “Many nutritional supplements promising better health are ‘useless’;” and
• “Health Benefits or Negative Impacts Still Uncertain for Most Supplements.”

You can be assured that CRN's staff is closely monitoring the media coverage and responding appropriately to these pieces without enflaming negative coverage or extending them beyond their usual 24-hour news cycle.

The New Administration

However, this year there is a new wrinkle to the New Year's "pile-on" because of the incoming Presidential Administration. Some of these articles note the prominent support for dietary supplements among members of the incoming Administration, drawing attention to the most extreme examples and cautioning that consumers are likely to see even less oversight from FDA in the next four years. As examples:

• A New York Times article cautions that lack of FDA regulation enables unsafe or mislabeled supplements to enter the market and calls for stricter oversight.
• An NBC News piece, also highlighted above, reports that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Trump's pick for Secretary of HHS, takes "a ton of vitamins and nutrients" and accused the FDA of “aggressive suppression” of vitamins and nutraceuticals.
• A Forbes article notes that Kennedy “touts certain drugs, supplements, and other therapies, some of which lack an RCT evidence base.”
• NBC News reported that Trump FBI Director nominee Kash Patel promoted a supplement line this year “that purports without evidence to help people ‘detox’ from Covid vaccines” and
• A Wall Street Journal article touts “Meet the Trump Nominees Selling Vitamins on the Side,” noting that Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Trump's surgeon general pick, sells her vitamin line. Dr. Mehmet Oz, who was named to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has a long history of promoting supplements and currently has a relationship with a prominent online supplement retailer.

We do not benefit from this kind of publicity. The media’s attacks on the nominees create collateral damage in the form of negative press for dietary supplements. I raise all of this with you not to “yuck your yum” but to caution our members that the current environment is fraught with risks as well as opportunities—which I’ll get to in a minute.

As we face this extra unwanted attention, all industry members must double down on their commitments to producing the highest quality products, review your claims substantiation to verify you have scientific support for the claims you make, and continue to pursue voluntary programs that demonstrate the dedication of this industry to our customers’ health and safety. We must act admirably in the face of these accusations to remind our consumers that their health is always our first concern.

Yes, There Are Opportunities

As I said, the incoming Administration represents real opportunities for our sector, too. As I wrote in that upcoming Whole Foods byline, once these nominees are confirmed, it will be refreshing to have government leaders who acknowledge the benefits of supplements and the role better nutrition plays in disease reduction.

Over the holidays, I read Dr. Marty Makary’s book, Blind Spots. He’s the nominee for FDA Commissioner. I’m encouraged by his recognition of the roles that vitamins and nutrition can play in overall health, his willingness to challenge the stale medical dogma that resists evolving science, and his calls to support new research that tackles long-held practices of medical professionals. What a change from a Commissioner who dismissed the importance of supplements at CRN’s conference last year and professed an inability to understand their labels.

I’m likewise encouraged by Cabinet-level officials who openly discuss their use of dietary supplements. As we look to expand access to our products through expanded FSA/HSA coverage and include vitamins in programs like SNAP, WIC, and Meals on Wheels, it will help the industry to have a more receptive audience in the new Administration.

Even the negative media coverage may ultimately boost our efforts to modernize DSHEA with new provisions that give FDA the tools it needs to have more effective oversight of this $64 billion industry. Those articles consistently note that “most products can be lawfully brought to the market without FDA even knowing” and express support for a requirement that companies provide a copy of their labels to the agency. As we look to rebalance the drug preclusion provision of the law and improve how we talk about scientific studies in relation to supplements, our support for a mandatory label registry gives us common ground with our critics to begin a discussion and bargaining power to have conversations to advance these objectives.

Without Active Engagement, the Battle is Lost

But for now, my most critical concern is the disengagement by many in our industry with the current political and media environment. The “A” in DSHEA does not stand for “apathy.”  For this industry to weather and prosper in this climate, companies need to be actively engaged:

• Are you fully plugged into CRN's various committees and working groups?

• Are you routinely scanning CRN’s weekly newsletter to stay abreast of breaking activities? Sharing our communications with your colleagues and considering how actions in DC could impact our business?

• Are you taking a proactive role in engaging with your elected officials at the state and federal levels to show them you are good citizens and ask for their help to advance a better climate for this industry?

• Are you using your peer-to-peer contacts to urge your vendors, competitors, and colleagues to join CRN?

These actions need your attention if we are going to take full advantage of the current environment. The larger our membership, the greater our influence and the more resources we can marshal to protect and advance the industry.

CRN is expectant and optimistic as we move into 2025, but we need your full support to defend and advance our cause. Please help us forge an even stronger industry ready for the opportunities ahead.

With best wishes,

Steve Mister