The High Court in London has today (22 May) rejected a pharma-led attempt to ban glucosamine’s right to exist as both a food and a medicine in the UK.
The legal action was mounted last year by Blue-Bio Pharmaceuticals, which has prescription-only registrations across the EU for its glucosamine sulphate product Dolenio.
Had it been successful the company’s action would have effectively closed down glucosamine’s food status in the UK.
The UK medicines regulator, the MHRA, which supports glucosamine’s dual status defended the action at a High Court hearing on 4 May. The Agency was supported in Court by the Health Food Manufacturers Association, which had warned that the case threatened “far reaching and serious implications” for the health food trade.
Commenting on today’s judgement by Mr Justice Supperstone, the HFMA’s executive director, Graham Keen, said: “We are very pleased with the outcome of this highly significant case, which had a very real capacity to have a profound impact on the future for our members, this industry and, perhaps most significantly, consumer choice. We are relieved that the judge has so clearly rejected all of the claims made by the Claimant in this case, and in such a speedy fashion. We have argued vigorously throughout the case that the current food supplement status for glucosamine should be maintained, and the Honourable Mr Justice Supperstone clearly agrees with this, citing much of our argument in his judgement. We are happy to have played such a key supportive role in helping the MHRA to defend this action, and my thanks in particular go to our excellent lawyer, Brian Kelly of Covington & Burling, who represented us at the hearing, and those companies, both members and non-members of the HFMA, whose financial support enabled us to intervene into this case.”
