The Member Business Appointments of the past four Annual Executive Conferences (AECs) have become more and more refined to the point where they are ready for their own spotlighted forum separate from the AEC: MarketPlace. This fall venture in New Jersey will allow over 10 hours of interaction between senior personnel and decision-makers from CHPA Active member companies—including their CEOs—and Associate members. The northeast corridor location and CHPA’s Board of Directors’ participation guarantee that appropriate management personnel will be in attendance.

MarketPlace will be a full day of meetings in 20-minute time slots to allow maximum exposure to the greatest number of clients possible (18-24 appointments), as well as networking time in the way of breakfast, lunch, and an evening reception.

To help members prepare for MarketPlace, a special announcement will be sent to Official Representatives (ORs) in early January. 

The tentative schedule for the day follows:

7:00 a.m.– 8:45 a.m. Continental breakfast

8:45 a.m.– 9:00 a.m. Welcome

9:00 a.m.– 5:30 p.m. Appointments (with short breaks throughout the day)

11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Staggered buffet lunch (when setting up appointments, allow for a one-hour lunch break)

5:30 p.m.– 7:30 p.m. Reception

Exhibitors are urged to personalize each presentation for their target audience: The more a presentation is personalized to the particular client or prospective client, the easier it will be for decision-makers. This is the perfect opportunity to present new developments in products and services your company is offering, or to reintroduce your company to new or former customers. And you can distinguish yourself further by sponsoring an event. 

This exclusive opportunity to meet with clients, prospects, and peers in the industry is open only to CHPA members. Register for both the AEC and MarketPlace at the same time and receive a special MarketPlace Early Bird "Exhibitor" rate. 

CHPA contacts: Kass Kassouf and Phyllis Taylor

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AEC favor bags

It is that time of year when we ask our members to assist CHPA by contributing OTC and dietary supplement products to the favor bags that will be given to attendees, guests, and speakers during the AEC. These welcome totes—always a memorable favorite—demonstrate firsthand who we are and what we do. CHPA members have a long tradition of being extremely generous in the products supplied.

Active and Associate member company Official Representatives will be contacted in early January and asked to think of Florida-related, "fun in the sun" types of products for inclusion in the bags.

AEC sports night grand prizes

Plans are underway to create a "sports night" for the final evening at the AEC. Competing in a sports activity will earn a raffle ticket. At the end of the evening, grand prizes will be raffled off to those present.

We have seven prize sponsors to date:

• Arnold Worldwide New York
• Bates Worldwide
• Carrafiello Diehl & Associates, Inc.
• Grey Worldwide, Inc.
• Saatchi & Saatchi
• The Seiden Group
• J. Walter Thompson Company

The more grand prizes, the more winners; the more winners, the more fun. Contact CHPA if you are interested.

MarketPlace sponsorships

As plans evolve for the first CHPA MarketPlace, so do sponsorship opportunities. Since this is an all-day event full of face-to-face networking opportunities between Active and Associate members, CHPA welcomes help from any member interested in sponsoring the continental breakfast, all-day beverage service, lunch, or reception at MarketPlace.

AOAC International recently was awarded a five-year contract to provide FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) Office of Dietary Supplements with accurate, validated analytical methods for 20 dietary supplement ingredients. The contract, which may be modified during its five-year period, amends a 2001 contract with AOAC to develop methods for ephedra and aristolochic acid.

The value of a validated analytical method is that it establishes an official standard, recognized in courts of law and by CODEX. This contract includes five main component projects:

1. Establishment of a list of ingredients for which FDA and NIH want official analytical methods developed: This list was compiled by the AOAC Dietary Supplement Task Group.
2. Prioritization of these ingredients: Already, an Ingredients Ranking Sub-Task Group, headed by CHPA, has developed a ranking matrix to provide an objective prioritization schedule of the ingredients. Criteria used by the ranking team included four factors: market share and industry needs, availability of methods, whether an NIH clinical trial on the ingredient is being planned or is underway, and FDA safety concerns and needs. 
3. Formation of an NIH expert peer-review committee to review current methods for each ingredient and select the best method for each ingredient for further study: Experts from industry currently are being sought for this committee.
4. Creation of training programs so that multiple laboratories will be proficient in evaluating methods.
5. Dissemination of final, official methods: To this end, AOAC has created e-CAM, the Electronic Compilation of Analytical Methods, a universal classification and validation system that will be available to labs online.

More information is available online. 

CHPA contact: Dr. Leila Saldanha

The European Parliament (EP) completed its first reading of a proposed directive on traditional herbal medicinal products in the EU November 21. The overall objective of the proposal is to harmonize Member State approaches to traditional herbal medicines by introducing a simplified registration procedure for certain products. Such a process would allow bibliographic or expert evidence on traditional uses and abridged safety reports rather than full documentation on safety and efficacy tests and trials. (See January 31 XNL.)

Following below are the amendments called for by the EP:

• Parliament calls for a new committee under the European Medicines Evaluation Agency to evaluate application issues, rather than having these issues fall under the pre-existing committee which handles evaluation issues for other medicines.
• Parliament adopted an amendment which would allow non-herbal ingredients such as vitamins and minerals to be included in herbal medicines.
• Parliament adopted an amendment shortening a required statement for advertising claims of these products noting "the product is traditionally used and its efficacy relies on long term use and experience."

Parliament retained a 30-year requirement to establish traditional use, with at least 10 of those years within the European Community.

The Association of the European Self-Medication Industry reports that the Commission is likely to support most of the changes proposed by the Parliament. After the Commission drafts its amended proposal it will go to the Council of Ministers.

CHPA contact: David Spangler