Question: How will recent FDA regulations affect the availability of pyridoxal-5-phosphate? Will it be available by Rx? Or not at all? Will it be removed from B vitamins?

Larry’s Response: This is another attempt by drug makers to wrestle safe supplements from the non-Rx arena. The action against P5P was initiated by a drug company that wants to market a version that they will sell by prescription – for an enormous price (I would not be surprised to see the Rx version costing one hundred times more that what is available now). I understand that they have already sought approval.

It will probably be removed from all multiple vitamin combinations – and may disappear completely from the OTC market.

If the Rx marketing plans are successful, we’ll probably see advertising for P5P that emphasizes all the benefits. The FDA refuses to allow supplement makers (and their supporters) to even mention medical advantages of any supplement. Once someone does the studies and gets approval as a drug, they CAN make all the claims that their studies support.

There’s an explanation of all this is here at Secrets of Natural Healing‘s post about Vitamin B-6 being declared a “drug” by the FDA.

It makes me wonder how we can expect to rein-in health care and health insurance costs by doing this?