Why Mannatech’s Clinical Trials Are Important To The Supplements Industry

 

By Al Bala, Mannatech Inc., CEO and President:

Mannatech is built on its pioneering glyconutritional technology, and I can’t think of any company in our industry that has the science and research that validates their products like we do.

We’ve said this many times before, but Mannatech’s technology has undergone 17 human clinical trials that have been published, 12 of which were double-blind, placebo-controlled studies — the gold standard for product validation.

But what does that mean, exactly? If you are a scientist working on any kind of technology that used by people internally, at some point you’ll want to have a human clinical trial. One of the most popular clinical trials is the double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that is recognized for minimizing bias in clinical testing.

Double-blind means that neither the subject of the study, nor the one conducting the study know if they are randomly giving or receiving the test product or the placebo. This is generally acknowledged as the “gold standard” of clinical pharmaceutical testing, in fact the FDA<https://www.fda.gov/downloads/drugs/guidancecomplianceregulatoryinformation/guidances/ucm073139.pdf> says:

Randomization and blinding are the two techniques usually used to minimize the chance of such bias and to ensure that the test treatment and control groups are similar at the start of the study and are treated similarly in the course of the study. Whether a trial design includes these features is a critical determinant of its quality and persuasiveness.

This is important because when we talk about our nutritional technology, our clinical studies published in peer-reviewed journals makes it clear that we have performed an unbiased and scientifically accepted process that shows the effectiveness of our glyconutritional technology. While some may have differing opinions about glyconutrition, the fact is opinions do not matter. Facts do, and our facts are backed by science.

Some may suggest that, because Mannatech funded some of those studies, the findings are not valid. Again, self-funded clinical studies are the industry standard. After all, who other than the developer of a unique product is motivated to evaluate its effects? For example, in 2014, drug companies funded nearly six times more clinical trials than the federal government’s National Institute of Health (NIH), according to a study<https://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs-trial-funding-20151214-story.html>conducted at Johns Hopkins University. Specifically, in 2014, 6,550 clinical trials were funded by drug industry while the NIH funded only 1,048 clinical studies.

This means that Mannatech is behaving in a like manner compared to the mainstream pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. And the fact is, since we have used double-blind, placebo-controlled studies that have been published in peer-reviewed journals any biases that may be perceived by self-funded studies will be minimized.

This goes right to the heart of why Mannatech is different from nearly all other nutritional supplement developers. Most other companies trade in commodities. They take products developed by others, stuff them in a bottle, slap a label on it and declare that they have something “new and improved.” But really, they have little investment in creating a product, conducting clinical trials and filling a health and wellness market need.

Our belief in this way of doing business is why we have committed millions of dollars to research and development. It is why we tirelessly seek to patent our technology in major global markets.

Our products have long been the envy of the direct sales industry. There have been many fly-by-night companies who have tried to copy our success, they will always lack what we have – scientific validation. So we all should feel good about the product technology and wellness solutions Mannatech offers because we have industry standard science on our side.