Nutritional supplements versus Pharmaceuticals

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http://www.hfn-usa.com/articles/spu118-david.html

 

David and Goliath: Nutritional supplements versus Pharmaceuticals

 

The United States' $100 billion drug industry -the most profitable industry

in the nation-has held medicine captive for years. Why? Because the cost

involved in approving a drug in the USA is so high, the drug must demand a

price high enough to recoup the costs. And one of the ways to do that is

with patent protection.

 

Federal intellectual-property-protection laws provide new brand-name drugs

with effective patent lives of about 13 to 15 years. EDTA, for example, was

proven safe by the FDA and patented as a pharmaceutical. But the patent on

EDTA expired many years ago. Consequently, it is now considered a generic

drug that any drug company can manufacture and sell . and is also used as a

food additive, because of its antioxidant properties, and as a nutritional

supplement.

 

Why haven't I heard about

EDTA from my doctor?

 

Because EDTA and other nutritional supplements do not have patents and are

not promoted by pharmaceutical companies.

 

The huge profits that the pharmaceutical company made in producing EDTA have

dried up-which means that the pharmaceutical company's ambitious campaigns

to market the product to doctors have stopped-so doctors are unfamiliar with

EDTA's benefits as a chelator.

 

Also, pharmaceutical companies are now off and running to produce comparable

chelators that they can patent and sell for a higher profit. And these

pharmaceutical companies are bad-mouthing EDTA, simply because they can't

get the patent and don't want it competing with any future oral chelating

products they may produce.

 

Typically, this is what happens when a patent expires. You may have taken a

particular drug for 15 years, been happy with the results, and all of a

sudden it's taken off the market because its patent expires. The

pharmaceutical company begins manufacturing a comparable drug and markets it

as " better, more technically advanced, cutting edge, " etc. But you take the

drug and don't notice a significant difference. Why? Because it isn't really

any better. It's just that the company needs to show a profit, and since it

lost the patent on the original drug you were taking, it has to disparage

the old drug in order to gain your trust and acceptance of the new drug.

 

 

 

Why isn't there more research to

support the benefits of EDTA?

 

Simply because it would cost millions of dollars for double-blind studies to

prove its effectiveness. And without patent protection, there are no

pharmaceutical manufacturers that would fund the research.

 

Also, " The cost and time required for research of that scope is beyond the

resources of the clinicians in private practice who utilize chelation

therapy. EDTA chelation therapy has therefore been an 'orphan' without a

source of financial support for research, " says James P. Carter, MD, PhD,

Professor and Head of the Nutrition Section, Tulane University School of

Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans. ( " If EDTA Chelation is so

good, why is it not widely accepted? " Journal of Advancement in Medicine,

Volume 2, Numbers 1/2, Spring/Summer 1989pages 213-226.)

 

" It costs a drug company millions of dollars for research and paperwork to

satisfy FDA requirements for the addition of a new therapeutic claim to the

package insert of an established drug. No company will spend the money

without the ability to recover those costs in the marketplace. This lack of

FDA approval for atherosclerosis is commonly used against physicians by

opponents of chelation, " adds Dr. Carter.

 

Where does that leave

nutritional supplements?

 

Essentially, patent laws shield the pharmaceutical industry from competition

in the making and marketing of drugs and supplements. Patent laws discourage

pharmaceutical companies from developing natural treatments, and natural

compounds can not have full patent protection, and therefore are rarely

developed into drugs-which means they are not promoted by doctors, who

rarely learn about them.

 

Take responsibility for your health

 

It's up to you, then, to take responsibility for your own health. Educate

yourself about nutritional supplements. Read about the latest studies and

research on supplements such as EDTA in publications like Smart

Publications' Health & Wellness Update. Learn how to sort through the

pharmaceutical industry's advertising hype. And listen more closely to the

small, but powerful voice of the nutritional supplement world. It will make

a huge difference in your health . and your life.