Consumers Should Regulate Diet Pills
Diet product has a huge market potential. An research done by Marketdata Enterprises, a leading independent market research publisher, shows that in 2010, diet products revenues has already reached $60.9 billion in the United States. Every year several new diet pills appear - each claim their own solution to weight loss. Since most consumers don’t understand the science related to diet pills, consumers can be misled by the advertisements that falsely present their product results.
Even though government agency such as fda and ftc are set up to protect consumers from diet pill scam, still, many fell for their exaggerating claim. So, there must more to be done by the fda and the ftc to regulate diet pill market.
FDA should be given additional
authority and also responsibility from the government on regulating diet pill market, because at this point, they cannot investigate the products before they hit the market. In many case diet pills are released to the public and later found to have undisclosed pharmaceutical ingredients. Fda should have the authority to approve every weight loss products before they go to market. fda should ensure that all drugs are safe and really contain what is on the label. Fda could even asked for power to force all diet pill product to have fda approve before they can be put up for sales.
Also, false advertising should be regulated by more strict advertising laws, Ftc can be suggested to: 1. creates a strong, and clear and truthful advertising law. All diet pill advertisements should be constructed to avoid making false claim, including
1) claim for specific performance, such as lose up to 10 pounds per week, which are outside the realm of possibility.
2) Claim that users can lose substantial amounts of weight rapidly without diet or exercise;
3) claim weight loss that exceed what is physiologically possible under normal circumstances, for example, losing 120 pounds in seven weeks;
4) Claims that weight loss will be long-term or permanent;
5) Unqualified safety claims or confusing representations concerning safety for ingredients
6) not to inform consumer if the product might have potential risks for a significant number of users
2. also, since diet pill market are not substantially large, FTC should be able regulate false advertising on a case by case basis. A possible way is to create a subcommission to require every diet pill product to have its advertisement sent for false screen before it actually advertises in public.
And this is our conclusion for regulating diet pill market.
Even though government agency such as fda and ftc are set up to protect consumers from diet pill scam, still, many fell for their exaggerating claim. So, there must more to be done by the fda and the ftc to regulate diet pill market.
FDA should be given additional
authority and also responsibility from the government on regulating diet pill market, because at this point, they cannot investigate the products before they hit the market. In many case diet pills are released to the public and later found to have undisclosed pharmaceutical ingredients. Fda should have the authority to approve every weight loss products before they go to market. fda should ensure that all drugs are safe and really contain what is on the label. Fda could even asked for power to force all diet pill product to have fda approve before they can be put up for sales.
Also, false advertising should be regulated by more strict advertising laws, Ftc can be suggested to: 1. creates a strong, and clear and truthful advertising law. All diet pill advertisements should be constructed to avoid making false claim, including
1) claim for specific performance, such as lose up to 10 pounds per week, which are outside the realm of possibility.
2) Claim that users can lose substantial amounts of weight rapidly without diet or exercise;
3) claim weight loss that exceed what is physiologically possible under normal circumstances, for example, losing 120 pounds in seven weeks;
4) Claims that weight loss will be long-term or permanent;
5) Unqualified safety claims or confusing representations concerning safety for ingredients
6) not to inform consumer if the product might have potential risks for a significant number of users
2. also, since diet pill market are not substantially large, FTC should be able regulate false advertising on a case by case basis. A possible way is to create a subcommission to require every diet pill product to have its advertisement sent for false screen before it actually advertises in public.
And this is our conclusion for regulating diet pill market.