The Demise of Prohormones Part III

What does two guys, $2000, a phone number, and a website equal? A supplement company

Before the FDA’s ban bonanza, what companies were leading the way in prohormones? Not the big ones like BSN, Cytosport, or Dymatize. Too much risk for them. It was the “garage chemists”, small, unheard of companies that seemed to be springing up everywhere. Why? Because anyone can create a supplement company. In fact, it’s probably one of the cheapest businesses to start. I should know. I along with another pharmacist created one two years ago for $5000.

 

All you’ll need is a couple thousand dollars, a website, and a phone number. It’d probably be smart to pay $500 for a LLC for liability purposes, and get a cheap insurance plan. You won’t need any equipment. You won’t need a warehouse. In fact , you don’t even need a degree in chemistry. A high school diploma would do just fine. The contract manufacturer will do the large majority of the work. All you need to to is sell (in fact marketing is far more important than an educational background in chemistry, biology, etc.). Who cares about safety and effectiveness. That’s the FDA’s responsibility. As long as it’s new, people will buy it. And when the FDA pulls it off the market, or heaven forbid it kills someone, we pull our money out and file chapter 8 on our LLC.

 

Now that’s a small exaggeration. But essentially, that’s all that’s needed to start a supplement company. Some of these companies just can’t be trusted. All they see is dollar signs. I cringe every time I see a new company spring up, and all they make are prohormones. I cringe even more when these guys on the message board, who by the way have no business using prohormones, volunteer to provide feedback for the company on the latest, greatest prohormone. Unbeknownst to them, they actually are human guinea pigs. Why risk your health for a 15 pound increase on the bench press?

 

General rule of thumb: If you don’t know what the president of the supplement company looks like, and the ads use a clinical study you cannot find on pubmed.org, avoid the company at all costs because they’re probably operating our of their basement.