C O U N C I L F O R R E S P O N S I B L E N U T R I T I O N 15 FIXING A FISHY SITUATION CRN played a key role in a victory for the dietary supplement industry—the International Trade Commission (ITC) decision not to pursue a complaint filed by biopharmaceutical company Amarin which would have detrimentally impacted consumer access to omega-3 supplements. CRN submitted a public interest statement and non-institution letter to ITC and also engaged allies on Capitol Hill and FDA to weigh in on this matter, resulting in ITC’s decision. CRN is monitoring Amarin’s ongoing efforts to appeal the decision and will proactively respond as needed. LEGAL AFFAIRS, FOR THE WIN CRN/NAD INITIATIVE LIVES ON The CRN Board approved a three-year renewal of the CRN/National Advertising Division (NAD) Dietary Supplement Advertising Review initiative, funded by the CRN Foundation (CRNF). The initiative, heralded by the Federal Trade Commission as a demonstration of “…just how impactful self-regulation can be,” achieved the following milestones in 2017: • CRNF has provided grants to NAD totaling more than $2.8 million since the program’s inception in 2006. • NAD has issued more than 300 decisions evaluating dietary supplement advertising. CASE IN POINT CRN submitted an amicus brief to support a motion for summary judgment in Korolshteyn v. Costco Wholesale Corp., a case involving alleged false statements for a ginkgo biloba supplement. Although amicus briefs at the district level are somewhat rare and often not given much weight when filed, in this particular case the court credited CRN’s arguments to allow the brief, and CRN’s involvement was key to the positive outcome of this case. AGs LOVE THE OWL CRN hosted a breakout session for state Attorneys General (AG) staff, including California, New Mexico, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Arkansas and Hawaii, who attended the Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG) annual meeting. At the event, AG staff learned about the dietary supplement industry’s latest self-regulatory initiatives to promote transparency and accountability and had a chance to try the Supplement OWL for themselves with live demos of the registry.