DSHEA implementation hearing

House Government Reform Committee tentatively planning oversight hearing for March on FDA's implementation of the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act. The committee will look at FDA's proposed rule on dietary supplement structure/function claims, including its new definition of "disease claims," which has been criticized by committee Chairman Dan Burton (R-Ind.) ("The Tan Sheet" Sept. 14, 1998, p. 8). The committee also will hold a hearing Feb. 24 on patient access to complementary and alternative medicine therapies. The hearing will, in part, address whether NIH biases toward conventional treatments are hindering CAM clinical trials. Burton also has been critical of FDA's approach to implementing the health claims provisions of the FDA Modernization Act ("The Tan Sheet" Aug. 17, 1998, p. 1)