Herbalife responds to question about research and development

CNBC columnist Herb Greenberg was wondering why the L.A.-based nutritional supplement company hadn't divulged its R&D costs - despite CEO Michael Johnson telling Jim Cramer that when it comes to product development, "we're doing research around the clock." An Herbalife spokeswoman emailed me a response saying that the company's type of research is different than the kind conducted by food or drug companies. That's why Herbalife's SEC filing says that its R&D expenses are "immaterial." From the statement:

Please don't misread this to say that we are not doing extensive work that would commonly be considered R&D in our industry. The statements that Herbalife CEO Michael Johnson made on Mad Money were referring to this more common connotation of R&D. Our research and development efforts are both internal and external, with both types of resources expanding as the company is growing. Our internal product development staff consists of scientists, chemists and other professionals who formulate new products, line extensions and make adjustments and improvements to existing products to reflect the changing scientific and regulatory landscape in our 81 markets. Our internal research staff in Los Angeles and Changsha (Hunan) China consists of scientists and professionals researching new compounds that may have promise, as well as exploring better ways to extract and process botanicals to achieve better results from existing compounds.

So there you have it.

Earlier: Questioning Herbalife's research & development