Page 92 - Malaysian Dietary Supplement Industry Status and Outlook Report 2019-2020 Preview

requirement) and pharmaceutical category (highest
regulatory requirement). Nevertheless, there are tendencies
to regulate dietary supplements as if they were
pharmaceutical products. Areas of which these issues often
occur include the same (high) level of rigorousness for
clinical tests (e.g. efficacy, toxicity, etc.) and stability tests
(e.g. shelf life, temperature stability, etc.)

The benchmarking to the same level of standards is an issue
particularly from the business perspective as dietary
supplement markets operate very differently compared to
pharmaceutical markets. For one, the market sizes for
dietary supplements are vastly smaller compared to
pharmaceutical markets, and dietary supplement products
are (grossly) restricted in terms of the health claims that they
can make (see later).

While dietary supplement industries are not advocating for
complete deregulation, more effort is certainly needed to
iron out such cases of disparity in regulatory standards
where they arise, such that the legitimacy of dietary
supplement products can be ensured without over-
encumbering the business aspects of the industry.

Promoting legitimate health benefits more robustly without
diluting industry responsibility.

A sub-category of regulatory challenges faced by dietary
supplement industries pertains to marketing and promotion
of dietary supplement products, specifically in the
communication of (scientifically proven) health benefits.

Communication of health benefits of dietary supplement
products are generally strictly regulated. For example, most
regulatory frameworks around the world (including Malaysia)
carry some form of prohibition on allowable words and/or
phrases used in describing health benefits of dietary
supplements. These prohibitions are typically holistically
enforced, and limits their usage ranging from mass media to
the labelling on the product itself.

The spirit behind the regulation is good and serves to
prevent and/or curb misrepresentation on the health
benefits of dietary supplement products. However, many
regulatory frameworks struggle to achieve effectiveness
without being pedantic, resulting in systems that over-
regulate marketing communications and become
burdensome to businesses.

The complexity of the matter is further compounded by the
diversity of dietary supplement players, particularly in this
digital age where access to end consumers is greatly aided
by the widespread penetration of e-commerce, some of
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