Hidden Agenda

The Ecologist

1st June, 2003

If you are one of the many millions of people who rely on vitamins and supplements to maintain their health and conquer illness, it’s time for you to get active. The Ecologist explains why

From vitamin C to echinacea, zinc tablets to St John’s Wort – more and more people are taking vitamins and supplements. In part this trend reflects a growing interest in natural alternatives, but for many people it is a conscious effort to avoid being beholden to the multinational pharmaceutical industry and its ‘cure-all’ drugs – drugs that reap billions for the corporations and cost us our health.

Unfortunately, this trend has not gone unnoticed by the pharmaceuticals, which for the last few years have been quietly buying up vitamin manufacturers all over the world. By 1998, the drugs firms controlled 70 per cent of the market. So if you buy vitamins or minerals today, the chances are that your money is going right back to the very companies you are trying to avoid.

And worse still is that the remaining 30 per cent – the independent, innovative sector – of the vitamin market is under threat too. On 12 March 2002, the European Commission approved a directive, which if unchallenged will result in the elimination of all competition to the drug giants.

EU standardisation

The main reason given for this new piece of EU legislation is...

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