On August 6, 2025, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it plans to “take action” (i.e., presumably ban) all animal-derived desiccated thyroid products from the market within the next 12 months unless the manufacturers successfully complete a cumbersome and very expensive drug-approval process. The banning of desiccated thyroid (DT) would cause great harm to hundreds of thousands of Americans, because DT is often the most effective, and in some cases the only effective treatment for hypothyroidism.
The most frequently prescribed treatment for hypothyroidism is levothyroxine (T4; common brand names: Synthroid, Levoxyl). Although T4 is not biologically active, it is converted by the body to triiodothyronine (T3), which is the active form of thyroid hormone. In most cases, T4 therapy relieves the symptoms of hypothyroidism, but a substantial minority of individuals experience little or no improvement. Some of the non-responders to T4 fare better with products that contain pure T3 or a combination of T3 and T4. However, in many instances, none of these treatments provide adequate symptom relief.
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