There are challenges from other areas too, manufacturers from the East are certainly gathering pace. We can see this by the type of requests we are getting for identifiable ingredients, which clearly tells us some brand owners are, at the very least, enquiring about having their products manufactured in facilities they may not have even seen!

Having had some travelling experiences in China and India, I feel there are still many differences in standards and often, it is only part of the facility that has been accredited with a GMP certificate.

This movement of business only puts pressure on the European manufacturer to produce cheaper product to gain business, margins are squeezed and in an effort to keep a workable margin, manufacturers rightly put pressure on their suppliers.

No one should mind a level playing field but it seems clear that some ingredient manufacturers and suppliers are changing their products.

Why would you change a carrier for a herbal extract suddenly? The carrier could be cheaper or does it give an opportunity to reformulate and use more carrier to the active becomes diluted? Why would a product not declare it’s active and only declares the ratio?

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