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Hello everybody and Merry Christmas from Texas!  I'm a pharmacist here and
have been looking into the question of the presence of gluten in
pharmaceutical products.  I even called a former professor of mine at UT.
He is the head of pharmaceutics there and serves on several boards for
manufacturers and the FDA.  The problem with gluten and companies claiming
their products are gluten free is that often they don't know what some of
their ingredients for excipients actually are.  They may be able to look at
the exipients and say that gluten isn't listed or that the starch used is
derived from corn but most will always add the caveat that they can't
guarentee that they are gluten free.  Pharmaceuticals are proven safe and
effective for most humans but that is not to say that everyone can use
them.  Case in point is lactose.  A huge portion of the population is
lactose intolerant, yet it is used in about 70% of pharmaceuticals.  There
is a very good study on gliadins in pharmaceuticals found on
www.mindspring.com/~drbsaks/gliadin.htm  this is a list pulled from the
actual article.  This group actually has devised an assay to detect
gliadins and the list is only partial.  It seems we who need total
abstinance from gluten need a lobby in Washington to require FDA labelling
on products whether or not they are gluten free.  Then we will have a
choice as lactose intolerant folks do whether the benefit outweighs the
risk of forgoing the drug therapy.  Until then it is a guessing game.  I am
still available to find numbers of pharmaceutical manufacturers, but any
pharmacist should be able to provide those numbers or the poison hot line
should be able to provide it as well.  Good luck to all.
Thanks for your time, and Happy Holidays, Cindy