Just recently we had a case that illustrates both the limits of FDA’s authority to regulate supplements and the promise of new enforcement tools provided by the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Dozens of people were suffering acute liver failure or non-viral hepatitis so severe that several needed liver transplants, and one died. These people, by and large, had been healthy. The illnesses were linked to certain OxyElite Pro dietary supplement products made by Texas-based USPLabs. Certain OxyElite Pro products and a second product, VERSA-1, contain a new dietary ingredient that has not been shown to be safe for use by consumers. This ingredient, aegeline, is a synthetic version of an alkaloid that exists, in natural form, in a tree that grows in parts of Asia. This is the second time in little more than a year that USPLabs has produced supplements containing a new dietary ingredient that lack a history of use or other evidence of safety. In the previous case, the company added a stimulant called DMAA (dimethylamylamine) to OxyElite Pro and to a similar product, Jack3D. We were alerted to the addition of DMAA through more than 100 reports of illness, including six deaths, among people who used the products. http://blogs.fda.gov/fdavoice/index.php/2013/11/fda-uses-new-authorities-to-get-oxyelite-pro-off-the-market/