FDA Rigs Process Against Estriol, Other Bioidenticals

We’ve said before that the FDA is stacking the deck against bioidentical hormones; now it seems incontrovertible. Time is running out for the natural health community to mount an effective defense of estriol and other compounded, bioidentical hormones from an FDA ban. Please take action by signing our petition to the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) study committee, urging them to consider ALL of the evidence in determining the clinical utility of compounded bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (cBHRT). To briefly recap where we are: estriol and other bioidentical hormones have been nominated to the FDA’s Demonstrably Difficult to Compound List; items that appear on the list when it is final will no longer be able to be made at compounding pharmacies. The FDA convened a NASEM committee to study the clinical utility of treating patients with cBHRT; the findings of this committee will be used by the FDA to make a final decision on the fate of estriol and other compounded hormones. NASEM has conducted several public meetings to date on cBHRT. During these meetings, the FDA invites experts to present to the NASEM panel, and to us it seems that the FDA is stacking the deck against compounded BHRT. What’s also clear is that the NASEM committee members lack a fundamental understanding of how cBHRT is used to treat menopause, meaning that committee members are susceptible to the FDA’s bias.

Big Drug Companies Threaten Natural Hormone Therapy

Big drug companies want the entire hormone therapy market to themselves. If they’re successful, the price of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy could go through the roof. And you won’t be able to get the therapy in the right form, either. In 2014, TherapeuticsMD, a drug company specializing in women’s healthcare, was granted two new patents for the company’s combination bioidentical-estradiol-and-progesterone drug. The patents are for the particular “recipe” of bioidentical hormones (presumably a particular ratio of estradiol to progesterone, combined with a proprietary solubilizing agent), and for the “method”—that is, the claim that this formulation is a method of treating menopause symptoms in women. The company is also in the midst of conducting a Phase III clinical trial on this drug, meaning that it could be very close to coming to market. Keep in mind that this is occurring against the backdrop of the FDA’s war on natural medicine.