STRASBOURG, France—The European Federation of Associations of Health Product Manufacturers (EHPM) held a workshop, “Regulation of Generic Health Claims: 4 Years On,” on April 28. Held in the European Parliament, the workshop aimed to get support from members of the European Parliament to review the implementation of the Regulation of Generic Health Claims, known as Article 13. EHPM opposes the current process, which it called a piecemeal adoption process, and is conducting an industry impact assessment to support its belief that this method is harming industry and consumers.
Peter Van Doorn, the chairman of EHPM, commented, “The batch-wise approach to the adoption of the article 13 Community list of generic health claims, distorts the competition in the market and is one of the many concerns that our industry has on the current implementation process of this Regulation.”
The Adebiotech Report for French DG for Competitiveness, Industry and Services presented the results of a survey done on French companies, which felt the current application of the regulation would “dry up” the market for functional food products in France; innovation and development in the industry would slow down and enforcement of the Regulation will be quite problematic.
Representatives of the Italian Ministry of Health presented their current national legislation giving consumer information on the use of botanical supplements based on traditional evidence, and highlighted the importance of recognition of this evidence and providing this information for consumers, as is currently the case for traditional herbal medicinal products.
