Following a flurry of over 150 confusing and often contradictory warning letters from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to industry in the past [year/several months], the Natural Products Association (NPA) announced that it will host an interactive webinar providing insight, guidance, and educational support for the dietary supplement industry regarding identity within Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs) today at 2 pm EST.

NPA said it has been at the forefront of cGMPs, having developed the first third-party cGMP certification process.

This webinar will focus on understanding the mandates for identity as part of the cGMPs and follows NPA’s widely attended webinar in September on understanding and mastering the specification requirements of cGMPs.  Like last month’s webinar, the session will feature leading industry executives, experts and current and former FDA officials including:

• Quyen Tien, compliance officer in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Office of Compliance, Division of Enforcement. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

• Elan Sudberg, CEO, Alkemist Laboratories. Alkemist Labs is an established leader in botanical plant testing, with expanded capabilities in phytochemical potency analysis, encompassing all herbs in commerce including hemp.

• Katie Banaszewki, director of quality, NOW Foods.

• Sibyl Swift, PhD, vice president for scientific & regulatory affairs for cbdMD. Swift is also the co-chair of cbdMD Therapeutics and a former top official at the FDA.

• Robert Durkin, Esq., Of Counsel to Arnall Golden Gregory LLP’s FDA and Healthcare Practices Division. Durkin was formerly the acting director and deputy director of the Office of Dietary Supplement Programs (ODSP) in the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN).

“NPA continues to be the lead organization for continuing education so our industry can follow the latest developments in the regulatory framework,” said Daniel Fabricant, PhD, president and CEO of NPA. “The simple fact that we do this demonstrates that this industry is absolutely and heavily regulated and works with government officials to understand the complexities of new and proposed rules. We invite those who falsely claim that our industry is not regulated to attend this and other webinars to see for themselves how rigorous the rules actually are.”

For more information, visit www.npanational.org.