Washington, D.C.—On Thursday, the Natural Products Association (NPA) submitted a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an extension of the comment period on the newly revised guidance re-draft for New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) Notifications.
Thedraft guidance, which was released on August 11, currently has a 60-day comment period; however NPA believes a 30-day extension will allow the opportunity for stakeholders to make a sufficient response.
“NPA believes that no harm will result from FDA extending the comment period due to the interest, significance, and complexities generated by the topics included in this re-draft,” said Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D., NPA's CEO and executive director in a prepared statement. “NPA looks forward to working with its member companies to engage this important public notice and comment period to make changes in helping to bring novel, innovative dietary ingredients to the market safely.”
Fabricant also added that although the “re-draft, which includes points of clarification over the earlier draft, was no Magna Carta par excellence,” there were still, in some cases, wins for the industry. However, the trade group found “inconsistencies and errors in the guidance” which they plan to address during the comment period.
Posted on WholeFoods Magazine Online 8/25/2016
