The rules are different here in the United States. Hyde Park Holistic Center in Cincinnati recently received a warning letter from the Food & Drug Administration that read like many others having to do with nutritional supplements and the H1N1 virus.

The Feds are again looking at how companies market foods to kids. Concerned by reports on child obesity, the FTC in 2010 will take a look at what the food companies sell for kids and how those products are marketed.

The first paragraph in the New York Times story said it all: "The Drug Enforcement Administration has classified as controlled substances three steroids that are marketed as dietary supplements, but an antidoping official warned that new steroids have taken their place on the shelves of nutrition stores."

Section 102(b) of the U.S. Patent Act prevents an inventor from getting a patent for an invention that was “described in a printed publication in this .

David Frum recently laid into the nutritional supplement industry with a guest commentary on CNN.com. The resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and one-time special assistant to President George W.

The headline in the Wall Street Journal read, "New Study Gives B Vitamin a Boost" and the first sentence in the article was, "Bring out the niacin."

Two days of hearings before the FDA about search-based advertising for drugs produced one possible solution: fixed warnings for products. Google has proposed that its AdWords could include a hyper-linked line that warns consumers about the potential dangers of a drug.

Ever since receiving FDA notices about their advertising generated from Google and similar searches, drugmakers have toned down their language and sought clarity on what is allowed.

Should there be a language standard in Google ads for supplements? Drug marketers may adopt rules given the close scrutiny that the FDA is giving search-generated ads for pharmaceuticals.

The FDA has been busy this past month, sending out warning letters left and right on a variety of topics.  Here they are in brief: This warning letter attacks a purportedly novel type of hand sanitizer called SkinWear that claims to work for up to 8 hours without alcohol in order to prevent the transmission of H1N1 Flu Virus.

Ric Hobby spoke at the CRN Conference last week on the state of international supplement regulation with a particular focus on European regulatory efforts.  Ric directed most of his talk on the work of the International Alliance of Dietary/Food Supplement Associations, of which CRN is a member.

David Vladeck, Director of the Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection spoke at the Council for Responsible Nutrition Conference on the FTC's "active" dietary supplement enforcement agenda.

FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Joshua M. Sharfstein, M.D. gave the keynote speech to the Council for Responsible Nutrition Conference. Dr. Sharfstein expressed a willingness to work with supplement industry members and received a warm welcome from industry members in return.

I just returned from the annual Conference of the Council for Responsible Nutrition at the Terranea Resort in Racho Palos Verdes, California.  Speakers on the agenda included a variety of supplement industry heavyweights and important government regulators.

Pepsi, maker of the AMP Energy drink, has ventured into new territory by marketing its energy supplement drink with an iPhone application to appeal to young guys "out on the prowl." 

The Web has erupted with news, opinion and practical guidance on the new FTC rules that apply to disclosures on blogger freebies. One commentary suggested that MIT graduates who wrote about fondly about their alma mater might subject the university to scrutiny.

If your marketing plan includes raising awareness through bloggers, read the latest FTC announcement on disclosure of freebies. The agency says that bloggers who review products given to them for free should disclose that fact in some circumstances.

Three Americans won Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine today for their research on telomeres, the endcaps of chromosomes that protect genetic material from being erased.

More evidence that while many economic sectors range between cool and frozen, the nutritional supplement industry remains warm to hot: Quebec City-based Atrium Innovations Inc. (TSX: ATB) announced on Sept.

Let us start by apologizing to the Bard and my 8th grade English teacher for the headline. It's a good way to ask the question of how closely nutritional supplement companies can connect with the fast-moving world of social media.