The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will translate into Filipino the “No approved therapeutic claims” placed on labels of food supplements in a bid to make the public aware that these products proliferating in the market are not medicines.

FDA head Nazarita Tacandong said yesterday the agency has already drafted a proposal to have the phrase translated into Filipino so that more people will know that the food supplements and other herbal products are not medicines.

“These food supplements are not drugs or medicines. That’s why they indicate that the products have no approved therapeutic claims,” Tacandong said in a forum organized by the Medicines Transparency Alliance (META) and the Pharma-ceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP).

One of the issues raised during the forum is the reliance of a large number of people on food supplements to cure diseases.

META Council Vice Chairman and PhilHealth Watch Initiative head Roberto Pagdanganan noted that the advertisements of these food supplement products imply that these can treat diseases, despite the “no approved therapeutic claims” on their labels.

“Billions of pesos are being spent all over the world on these kind of products that from the medical standpoint are of no use,” Pagdanganan said.

Tacandong said the proposed translation for the claim is “Ang produktong ito ay hindi nakakagamot.”

She further said that the FDA has already issued a cease and desist order to manufacturers that continue to defy its order to put a warning on the labels of the food supplements.

“The FDA now also has a task force that will screen advertisements of food supplement and herbal products before they come out in TV or be printed in the newspapers,” Tacandong said.

Rommel C. Lontayao