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COMPANY PROFILE: HI-TECH PHARMACEUTICALS

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THE EDITORS

It’s hard for a supplement company to “wow” consumers in 2017. People can see through labels, companies, and individuals who are fake and just out for a quick buck. Gossip and news spread like wildfire in the industry, and your reputation is the only thing you have; one bad class-action lawsuit, and you can say goodbye to your status. Finding a company that has been around for a while is like trying to find a needle in a haystack; with that said, sometimes you get lucky. Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is a Georgia-based supplement company located just north of Atlanta. If you haven’t heard of Hi-Tech, you may have heard of one of the 10 supplement companies it also owns, including APS, Innovative Laboratories, Formutech Nutrition, Gaspari, iForce, ALR Industries, Sports One, LG Sciences, to name a few! Not only is it one of the few supplement companies to actually manufacture its own products but it also makes supplements for many other companies. In fact, it’s estimated that Hi-Tech makes approximately one third of all sports supplements found in the specialty channel in the United States! Its plants can manufacture 35 billion tablets, 10 billion capsules, 500 million bottles, 250 million blister packs, and 150 million pacquettes on an annual basis.

Vertical Integration

Hi-Tech has its own manufacturing facilities, brands, sales force, marketing team, and state-of-the-art in-house supply chain management capabilities. As a result. it can make its own products in all categories, such as liquids, powders, pills, and tablets, which allows it to keep costs down while delivering a highly potent end product. This is also why it manufactures other companies’ products for them. Hi-Tech has four US production facilities and two warehouses with over 400,000 square feet of total area.

 

Hi-Tech Also Manufactures Over-the-Counter Drugs

One of Hi-Tech’s manufacturing facilities is actually approved by the FDA to manufacture over-the-counter drugs. It actually holds a drug manufacturing license issued by the state of Pennsylvania’s Food and Drug Branch. It’s also registered as a food and drug establishment with the FDA in Pennsylvania. In an industry full of companies whom you can’t always trust as far as you can throw them, everything Hi-Tech does is above the table. It has a perfect record with quality control inspections by the FDA, and, as many readers know, it’s always more than willing to fight with regulatory bodies to ensure that consumers get the strongest supplements legally available. It was one of the first companies who introduced DMAA to the public, and it’s gone to bat against the FDA in order to keep ingredients such as ephedrine on the market in 2004, and more recently, DMAA.

Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals vs. the FDA

Like many in the supplement industry, we’ve heard a lot of gossip about Hi-Tech and its CEO, Jared Wheat, suing the FDA over its attempt to remove DMAA (1,3- dimethylamylamine) from the US market. After MUSCLE INSIDER publisher Scott Welch interviewed Jared Wheat, we’ve learned that his lawsuits with the FDA have been centered around Hi-Tech wanting consumers to be able to buy any supplement that is technically legal at this point in time. If the FDA bans something, Jared has an obligation to stop selling it, which he openly agrees to do. Rules are rules. But if the FDA doesn’t ban something but instead sends a warning letter telling companies in the future they might ban something, Jared believes the public has the right to continue buying the supplement until the day it’s banned. We respect his viewpoint and agree with it. If the FDA sets a rule, companies must respect that rule, but so must the FDA. Jared Wheat compares people who attack the supplement industry to a schoolyard bully: “If you know you’re right and you hit him back, then he might not come at you again. In this case, if you know you’re right and you believe you can win, then you can impact the whole industry.”

 

Quality Control

Consumers aren’t stupid; now more than ever, with so much access to information online and in print, consumers are on the cutting edge of science and research products. They know what to expect from their supplements before they even buy them, and as a result, they also want transparency in terms of labels, and information about the quality control companies use. Hi-Tech is open about its procedures and advertises the fact that each ingredient it uses is subject to as many as 20 tests for purity and potency. It tests for everything from microbes to purity to identity, as well as doing testing during the manufacturing process. It’s been audited 16 times by the FDA, and it’s the only company that has a perfect record.

Supporting the Independent Channel

Hi-Tech prides itself on working with independent channel retailers to support their business, protect them against MAP pricing, and offer them cutting-edge products you won’t find at a Costco! As our readers know, the bricks and mortar supplement stores are where the most innovative products are always found and where the most knowledgeable staff make their living.

 

Science—and Hi-Tech—Never Stands Still

The slogan of Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals is “where science never stands still.” After reading how much pride it takes in its manufacturing facilities, how it’s always on the cutting edge of research and science with its ingredients and products, and how it stays honest and transparent in an industry full of companies that hide, it’s no wonder Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals never stands still! Great leaders will always set the bar high and keep pushing the envelope forward.