Last February, FDA issued three warning letters to companies marketing cannabidiol (CBD) products as dietary supplements. FDA reviewed the companies’ websites and concluded that claims that CBD products could treat post-traumatic stress disorder, lupus, cancer, and other conditions rendered the products unapproved new drugs.
This February, FDA again turned its attention to CBD products, issuing eight new warning letters. For the first time in an enforcement context, FDA contended that CBD products fail to meet the FDCA definition of a “dietary supplement.” The agency explained as follows:
FDA has concluded that CBD products are excluded from the dietary supplement definition under section 201(ff)(3)(B)(ii) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(ff)(3)(B)(ii)]. Under that provision, if a substance (such as CBD) has been authorized for investigation as a new drug for which substantial clinical investigations have been instituted and for which the existence of such investigations has been made public, then products containing that substance are outside the definition of a dietary supplement. There is an exception if the substance was “marketed as” a dietary supplement or a conventional food before the new drug investigations were authorized; however, based on available evidence, FDA has concluded that this is not the case for CBD.
The existence of substantial clinical investigations regarding CBD has been made public. For example, two such substantial clinical investigations include GW Pharmaceuticals’ investigations regarding Sativex and Epidiolex. FDA considers a substance to be “authorized for investigation as a new drug” if it is the subject of an Investigational New Drug application (IND) that has gone into effect. Under FDA’s regulations (21 C.F.R. § 312.2), unless a clinical investigation meets the limited criteria in that regulation, an IND is required for all clinical investigations of products that are subject to section 505 of the FD&C Act. FDA is not aware of any evidence that would call into question its current conclusion that CBD products are excluded from the dietary supplement definition under section 201(ff)(3)(B)(ii) of the FD&C Act, but you may present the agency with any evidence that has bearing on this issue.
The cited portion of the “dietary supplement” definition is discussed in FDA’s controversial 2011 draft guidance on new dietary ingredients. FDA committed to revising that guidance in 2012. Revised guidance has yet to be released.
In each of the new warning letters, FDA again identified claims that it believed rendered products unapproved new drugs. This time, however, identified claims were drawn from not only company websites, but also product descriptions on Etsy and company posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. We discussed FDA and FTC regulation of social media in an article published in Nutritional Outlook. In general, regulators treat social media posts by companies the same as any other labeling or advertising. Regulators may treat posts by consumers as labeling or advertising where a company “likes,” comments on, or republishes a post.
