What will beat the virus is a vaccine, a little pill that will cost billions to invent, take years to test, and make trillions for the lucky manufacturer. In 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health Act created a loophole in FDA regulations. This loophole is now the size of the grand canyon, gushing with snake oil. St John's wort, melatonin, echinacea, and ginseng are cascading down US throats. Typically the products are sold off supermarket shelves or, like Tupperware, by pyramid schemes - every customer a salesperson.
American doctors are worried.
There is one born every minute, and most of them are overweight by the age of 30. More interesting are the products that may, conceivably, work. Slash and burn doesn't work any better on the human body than in the Amazon basin. A new approach is needed, and there's a growing sense that nutritional supplements may be it. The Texas-based firm, founded in 1993, has shot up the Nasdaq like a rocket.