Feds crack down on supplement industry, go after deceptive products

DOJ pursuing criminal and civil cases against more than 100 makers and marketers


Read the whole story

 

[bithlerlowns]

"The two products, which had $400 million in sales between 2008 and 2013, were said to be made from plant extracts, but actually contained synthetic stimulants made in China."

I immediately thought of the Simpsons:

http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Powersauce

 

[apocryphal triptych]

Can it be? Please? Tell me homeopathic "remedies" will be included in this crackdown.

 

[darkwiz]

I'm starting to wonder if the government really is getting tips from John Oliver, or vice versa.

John Oliver goes on a rant about FIFA and Sepp Blatter - FBI investigates and prosecutes FIFA
John Oliver goes on a rant about Dr. Oz and nutritional supplements - now this.

 

[snowman<ca>]

Finally, most of these claims go back decades

 

[fauxdiophile]

I'm hoping this will result in some transparency and labelling laws for these things. Hard to believe that this industry has been unregulated for so long, making statements without requiring any kind of proof.

I've used jack3d quite a bit, and would love to be involved in a class action if they were using ingredients that they knew caused harm to the body.

 

[snowman<ca>]

fauxdiophile[/url]":3ay2t38m]I'm hoping this will result in some transparency and labelling laws for these things. Hard to believe that this industry has been unregulated for so long, making statements without requiring any kind of proof.

I've used jack3d quite a bit, and would love to be involved in a class action if they were using ingredients that they knew caused harm to the body.

As bad as they have been on the promises, another problematic thing has been quality. Some 3rd party studies have found many instances on the most popular supplement brands showed they including things that are not on the label, not including things that were on the label and having incorrect amounts verses the label.

 

[lint gravy]

bag[/url]":11r9nfpw]Can it be? Please? Tell me homeopathic "remedies" will be included in this crackdown.

Homeopathy may be useless quackery but that's all it is: useless. The stuff they're talking about contains undeclared and unregulated toxic pharmaceuticals made in China. Nobody ever died from homeopathy. (Though they do occasionally die because they use it for serious diseases and don't seek real treatment.)

 

[Langdon]

Its about time.

While its good the DoJ is doing some investigations I've been a big proponent for better funding the FDA and USDA since its the one major area the private sector can't oversee with any level of impartiality.

 

[Michael Schnieders]

While I personally did not know of these products, I have been dismayed by deceptive advertising practices for such miraculous products. While a little bit of logic and thoughtful research will reveal the dubiousness(?) of their veracity, many companies still pedal "Dr. Dan's Miraculous Miracle Titan Tonic".
ITS ABOUT TIME! (Darn you Langdon)

P.S. my second thought "Intent to Decieve", by Larry Niven.

 

[lint gravy]

darkwiz[/url]":3bv6w56m]I'm starting to wonder if the government really is getting tips from John Oliver, or vice versa.

It'd be nice to think so, but the FIFA indictments followed a 3 year investigation and used a number of highly-placed informants well before the Oliver report. In the cases they're discussing here, legal action started a year ago in Nov 2014.

 

[isparavanje]

Off topic, but I think if Ars doesn't have a relevant photo that is actually about one of the objects or one of the people involved, you should just omit photos. Adding a random stock photo makes an otherwise great article feel a little cheap.

 

[fauxdiophile]

snowman<ca>[/url]"76ocju1]

fauxdiophile[/url]"76ocju1]I'm hoping this will result in some transparency and labelling laws for these things. Hard to believe that this industry has been unregulated for so long, making statements without requiring any kind of proof.

I've used jack3d quite a bit, and would love to be involved in a class action if they were using ingredients that they knew caused harm to the body.

As bad as they have been on the promises, another problematic thing has been quality. Some 3rd party studies have found many instances on the most popular supplement brands showed they including things that are not on the label, not including things that were on the label and having incorrect amounts verses the label.

great point! that is arguably a bigger sin.

 

[Daconsul]

I just hope that the government does not accept a plea bargain from these scumbags. They will hire a team of lawyers and attempt to make it too costly for the government to take them to trial in the hope they can negotiate a fine and slap on the wrist. I say incarcerate the bastards.

 

[Marlor_AU]

It sounds like their prime target is those companies including dangerous or unlisted ingredients in their supplements.

But they really need to go all-in and crack down on all supplements and "alternative medicines" that make unproven or impossible claims. That includes herbal and vitamin supplements that make outlandish, unproven claims about efficacy, all homeopathic remedies, and a whole slab of the cosmetics industry.

 

[Marlor_AU]

lint gravy[/url]":1kozn7tn]

bag[/url]":1kozn7tn]Can it be? Please? Tell me homeopathic "remedies" will be included in this crackdown.

Homeopathy may be useless quackery but that's all it is: useless.

It's potentially fatal if people forego real treatment because they believe the fake remedies are adequate.

Nobody ever died from homeopathy. (Though they do occasionally die because they use it for serious diseases and don't seek real treatment.)

This is exactly the objection to homeopathy. If people were simply taking it as some sort of "supplement", then nobody would really care too much. But when children die because their parents tried to treat their illness with homeopathic remedies, rather than "giving money to big pharma", then that's a tragedy. The companies who peddle the quackery should be punished.

If a class of pharmaceutical medicines resulted in dozens of preventable deaths each and every year, there would be an outcry, and demands that heads roll. When the H1N1 vaccine resulted in deaths (30 deaths potentially linked to the vaccine from 65 million doses), there was public outrage and reams of newsprint dedicated to the issue. But when treatment of illness with homeopathic remedies leads to similar death tolls, nobody cares, declaring homeopathy to be "harmless".

 

[Mardaneus]

bag[/url]":1vpc04vw]Can it be? Please? Tell me homeopathic "remedies" will be included in this crackdown.

No. Not unless you change the law.
And as you can see here the only reason they can go after these guys is because they either committed fraud by lying what is in their product or does. That latter is why they can get them on the liver damage, not because it does liver damage.

fauxdiophile[/url]":1vpc04vw]I'm hoping this will result in some transparency and labelling laws for these things. Hard to believe that this industry has been unregulated for so long, making statements without requiring any kind of proof.

Oh no this industry is quite regulated. So regulated thanks to a bunch of politicians with their hand in the supplement jar that the FDA can't do anything about it unless they lie about what their product contains or is supposed to do.

Langdon[/url]":1vpc04vw]Its about time.

While its good the DoJ is doing some investigations I've been a big proponent for better funding the FDA and USDA since its the one major area the private sector can't oversee with any level of impartiality.

Don't forget to add in people like Darrell Issa & Tom Harkins who rammed through the laws actively hampering the FDA and USDA to go after these kind of scams. They got to protect the people/companies that bribed (Did I say bribe? I mean contributed to their campaigns) them.

Marlor[/url]":1vpc04vw]It sounds like their prime target is those companies including dangerous or unlisted ingredients in their supplements.

But they really need to go all-in and crack down on all supplements and "alternative medicines" that make unproven or impossible claims. That includes herbal and vitamin supplements that make outlandish, unproven claims about efficacy, all homeopathic remedies, and a whole slab of the cosmetics industry.

Elect people who aren't bribed by those groups to congress & senate then maybe in a few decades that might actually change but don't get your hopes up seeing that 80 years after the FDA was created, and that they had to accept homeopathy as working, the modest proposal of getting new additions to the magic water/sugar pill line up (not existing just new) be tested like normal medicine was quickly shelved.

Marlor[/url]":1vpc04vw]

lint gravy[/url]":1vpc04vw]

bag[/url]":1vpc04vw]Can it be? Please? Tell me homeopathic "remedies" will be included in this crackdown.

Homeopathy may be useless quackery but that's all it is: useless.

It's potentially fatal if people forego real treatment because they believe the fake remedies are adequate.

Nobody ever died from homeopathy. (Though they do occasionally die because they use it for serious diseases and don't seek real treatment.)

This is exactly the objection to homeopathy. If people were simply taking it as some sort of "supplement", then nobody would really care too much. But when children die because their parents tried to treat their illness with homeopathic remedies, rather than "giving money to big pharma", then that's a tragedy. The companies who peddle the quackery should be punished.

If a class of pharmaceutical medicines resulted in dozens of preventable deaths each and every year, there would be an outcry, and demands that heads roll. When the H1N1 vaccine resulted in deaths (30 deaths potentially linked to the vaccine from 65 million doses), there was public outrage and reams of newsprint dedicated to the issue. But when treatment of illness with homeopathic remedies leads to similar death tolls, nobody cares, declaring homeopathy to be "harmless".

Plus the fact that the FDA can't go after homeopathy. The same law that created the FDA requires them to accept anything in the homeopathic pharmacopoeia as a working medicine.

 

[obarthelemy]

Dammit ! How am I supposed to get muscles and erections now ?

 

[obarthelemy]

bag[/url]":60e3um8b]Can it be? Please? Tell me homeopathic "remedies" will be included in this crackdown.

Frankly, misused presciption drugs do a lot more damage than homeopathy ever will do.

 

[wastrel]

Deceptive "products"... how about politicians?

 

[Fatesrider]

wastrel[/url]":2rur8e2g]Deceptive "products"... how about politicians?

That's not the FDA's domain. If it was illegal to mislead the public, they'd all be behind bars.

Hmmm... I have an idea for legislation which, of course, no one would ever allow to pass...

With regard to food/product safety I tend to wonder why we have a system of "regulation" that allows snake oil to be sold first and only "regulated" with respect to safety later - long after the damage has been done.

 

[aikanae]

Mardaneus[/url]":xdpi5o0s]

bag[/url]":xdpi5o0s]Can it be? Please? Tell me homeopathic "remedies" will be included in this crackdown.

No. Not unless you change the law.
And as you can see here the only reason they can go after these guys is because they either committed fraud by lying what is in their product or does. That latter is why they can get them on the liver damage, not because it does liver damage.

fauxdiophile[/url]":xdpi5o0s]I'm hoping this will result in some transparency and labelling laws for these things. Hard to believe that this industry has been unregulated for so long, making statements without requiring any kind of proof.

Oh no this industry is quite regulated. So regulated thanks to a bunch of politicians with their hand in the supplement jar that the FDA can't do anything about it unless they lie about what their product contains or is supposed to do.

Langdon[/url]":xdpi5o0s]Its about time.

While its good the DoJ is doing some investigations I've been a big proponent for better funding the FDA and USDA since its the one major area the private sector can't oversee with any level of impartiality.

Don't forget to add in people like Darrell Issa & Tom Harkins who rammed through the laws actively hampering the FDA and USDA to go after these kind of scams. They got to protect the people/companies that bribed (Did I say bribe? I mean contributed to their campaigns) them.

Marlor[/url]":xdpi5o0s]It sounds like their prime target is those companies including dangerous or unlisted ingredients in their supplements.

But they really need to go all-in and crack down on all supplements and "alternative medicines" that make unproven or impossible claims. That includes herbal and vitamin supplements that make outlandish, unproven claims about efficacy, all homeopathic remedies, and a whole slab of the cosmetics industry.

Elect people who aren't bribed by those groups to congress & senate then maybe in a few decades that might actually change but don't get your hopes up seeing that 80 years after the FDA was created, and that they had to accept homeopathy as working, the modest proposal of getting new additions to the magic water/sugar pill line up (not existing just new) be tested like normal medicine was quickly shelved.

Marlor[/url]":xdpi5o0s]

lint gravy[/url]":xdpi5o0s]

bag[/url]":xdpi5o0s]Can it be? Please? Tell me homeopathic "remedies" will be included in this crackdown.

Homeopathy may be useless quackery but that's all it is: useless.

It's potentially fatal if people forego real treatment because they believe the fake remedies are adequate.

Nobody ever died from homeopathy. (Though they do occasionally die because they use it for serious diseases and don't seek real treatment.)

This is exactly the objection to homeopathy. If people were simply taking it as some sort of "supplement", then nobody would really care too much. But when children die because their parents tried to treat their illness with homeopathic remedies, rather than "giving money to big pharma", then that's a tragedy. The companies who peddle the quackery should be punished.

If a class of pharmaceutical medicines resulted in dozens of preventable deaths each and every year, there would be an outcry, and demands that heads roll. When the H1N1 vaccine resulted in deaths (30 deaths potentially linked to the vaccine from 65 million doses), there was public outrage and reams of newsprint dedicated to the issue. But when treatment of illness with homeopathic remedies leads to similar death tolls, nobody cares, declaring homeopathy to be "harmless".

Plus the fact that the FDA can't go after homeopathy. The same law that created the FDA requires them to accept anything in the homeopathic pharmacopoeia as a working medicine.

" the only reason they can go after these guys is because they either committed fraud by lying"

Wouldn't it be great if we had the same law for politicians?

 

[Carewolf]

lint gravy[/url]":146n77nf]

darkwiz[/url]":146n77nf]I'm starting to wonder if the government really is getting tips from John Oliver, or vice versa.

It'd be nice to think so, but the FIFA indictments followed a 3 year investigation and used a number of highly-placed informants well before the Oliver report. In the cases they're discussing here, legal action started a year ago in Nov 2014.

Good point, but wasn't the John Oliver episode on supplements about a year ago?

 

[dio82]

bag[/url]":2wiqjm67]Can it be? Please? Tell me homeopathic "remedies" will be included in this crackdown.

Nah, grains of sugar are completely harmless from a public health perspective.

 

[Deleted member 1]

aikanae[/url]":k1hcxb95]The entire content of this article is from a single source. There's always another side. What I've noticed the FDA does is mix fact and fiction so it's hard to tell which is which. While there was abuses, they went after over a hundred cases and site a handful of examples. That's not conclusive.

The FDA is controlled by pharma execs. Their operating budget is paid through application and filling fees from pharma and that's who their employer is. Many people turn to nutritional suppliments first, before seeking medical help and some of that is reflective of the economy and lack of access to care. Who hasn't maxed out on vitamin C for a cold? But pharma wants it all. There's been a number of times that leaks, emails, revealed back door deals with the FDA and pharma so they could patent a new prescription and not for "pubic health'. Too much vitamin A will cause liver damage, should we remove access to vitamin A?

Yes labels should list ingredients, amounts, source and testing should prove that's what's in them, and those laws already exist. The regulations that want control of suppliments turn them over to pharma and make them unaccessible. That's about market share.

I don't know what the truth is in this, but I strongly suspect there's a mixture of fact and fiction when the FDA wants media attention.

Just because one group of manufacturers may take some greedy or dangerous or illegal actions, doesn't mean the other group of manufacturers isn't way worse, way more dangerous, or even more illegal. Humans can't, reliably, be trusted.

 

[Marlor_AU]

Mardaneus[/url]":2ack8efc]Plus the fact that the FDA can't go after homeopathy. The same law that created the FDA requires them to accept anything in the homeopathic pharmacopoeia as a working medicine.

While the FDA can't do a thing, other state and federal agencies should be going after them for fraud.

They are making claims which are demonstrably false. That is deceptive advertising, pure and simple.

If a car-maker advertized that their car could go from 0-60 in three seconds, when it was more like fifteen, then heads would roll. But if a maker of homeopathic remedies claims they can cure a potentially fatal disease with a product that has no active ingredients, then it's fine? Something is wrong with this situation. The priorities for consumer protection are all wrong.

 

[dio82]

Marlor[/url]":3e7oswkc]

Mardaneus[/url]":3e7oswkc]Plus the fact that the FDA can't go after homeopathy. The same law that created the FDA requires them to accept anything in the homeopathic pharmacopoeia as a working medicine.

While the FDA can't do a thing, other state and federal agencies should be going after them for fraud.

They are making claims which are demonstrably false. That is deceptive advertising, pure and simple.

If a car-maker advertized that their car could go from 0-60 in three seconds, when it was more like fifteen, then heads would roll. But if a maker of homeopathic remedies claims they can cure a potentially fatal disease with a product that has no active ingredients, then it's fine? Something is wrong with this situation. The priorities for consumer protection are all wrong.

Are there really actual homeopath quacks who will sell their their remedies with the words: "take this and you WILL get cured?" or is it more of a "take this and your condition might improve" or "in case of XXX take this" (<- notice how no promise is given for efficacy). The last two senteces are protected by free speech, aparantly the only freedom worth a damn in the USA.

Fools and their money want to get parted, and there is unfortunately nothing one can do against that in the end. We are talking about idiots who believe that "Big Pharma" is soo ebil and that they will rather harm/kill themselves than in any way indirectly support "Big Pharma".

 

[bickle2]

fauxdiophile[/url]":3ob4xplr]I'm hoping this will result in some transparency and labelling laws for these things. Hard to believe that this industry has been unregulated for so long, making statements without requiring any kind of proof.

I've used jack3d quite a bit, and would love to be involved in a class action if they were using ingredients that they knew caused harm to the body.

labeling? for some resdon Aurborne is still sold, despite it being a confirmed scsm

how about bans and prison time for selling snake oil

 

[epiccollision]

dio82[/url]":31k1q4db]

Marlor[/url]":31k1q4db]

Mardaneus[/url]":31k1q4db]Plus the fact that the FDA can't go after homeopathy. The same law that created the FDA requires them to accept anything in the homeopathic pharmacopoeia as a working medicine.

While the FDA can't do a thing, other state and federal agencies should be going after them for fraud.

They are making claims which are demonstrably false. That is deceptive advertising, pure and simple.

If a car-maker advertized that their car could go from 0-60 in three seconds, when it was more like fifteen, then heads would roll. But if a maker of homeopathic remedies claims they can cure a potentially fatal disease with a product that has no active ingredients, then it's fine? Something is wrong with this situation. The priorities for consumer protection are all wrong.

Are there really actual homeopath quacks who will sell their their remedies with the words: "take this and you WILL get cured?" or is it more of a "take this and your condition might improve" or "in case of XXX take this" (<- notice how no promise is given for efficacy). The last two senteces are protected by free speech, aparantly the only freedom worth a damn in the USA.

Fools and their money want to get parted, and there is unfortunately nothing one can do against that in the end. We are talking about idiots who believe that "Big Pharma" is soo ebil and that they will rather harm/kill themselves than in any way indirectly support "Big Pharma".

Claims aside, they are being sold in pharmacies, that's enough to convince a lot of people their effectiveness. I mean why else are they selling them, right?

 

[dio82]

Mardaneus[/url]":1fpzn46k]
Plus the fact that the FDA can't go after homeopathy. The same law that created the FDA requires them to accept anything in the homeopathic pharmacopoeia as a working medicine.

O RLY?
I just want to understand the enemy (quackery) better: Could you please show me some legal text that shows exactly that?

 

[bickle2]

lint gravy[/url]":1jl5bs9m]

bag[/url]":1jl5bs9m]Can it be? Please? Tell me homeopathic "remedies" will be included in this crackdown.

Homeopathy may be useless quackery but that's all it is: useless. The stuff they're talking about contains undeclared and unregulated toxic pharmaceuticals made in China. Nobody ever died from homeopathy. (Though they do occasionally die because they use it for serious diseases and don't seek real treatment.)

while selling poison is certainly higher priority, homeopaths should be arrested and punished for fraud, and the practice and distribution of theor "remedy" banned entirely, along with any other "medicine" that doexnt pass scientific muster.

its time to end woo and the fraud attached to it. if someone believes in it, they are mentally disabled and should be treated as such. the only place magic crystals should go is down the urethra of the crook selling them

 

[bickle2]

dio82[/url]":3jedgke0]

Mardaneus[/url]":3jedgke0]
Plus the fact that the FDA can't go after homeopathy. The same law that created the FDA requires them to accept anything in the homeopathic pharmacopoeia as a working medicine.

O RLY?
I just want to understand the enemy (quackery) better: Could you please show me some legal text that shows exactly that?

theyre confused. the suplement industry bribed Orin Hatch and many others to make it nearly impossible to shut them down, even in the face of naked fraud. the only time they can take action is when direct and definitive harm is being done, such as this case

 

[Mardaneus]

Marlor[/url]":6bny6xyg]

Mardaneus[/url]":6bny6xyg]Plus the fact that the FDA can't go after homeopathy. The same law that created the FDA requires them to accept anything in the homeopathic pharmacopoeia as a working medicine.

While the FDA can't do a thing, other state and federal agencies should be going after them for fraud.

They are making claims which are demonstrably false. That is deceptive advertising, pure and simple.

That is the problem. The law says the junk in the homeopathic pharmacopoeia works. That means that the claims made are not false. Which means making those is not deceptive advertising.
Further other state and federal agencies can't go after them since this is the jurisdiction of the FDA. And even if they tried the courts would have no recourse then to toss the original lawsuit, not the counter suit though, since those quacks are complying with the law. Now if they'd be stupid enough to adulterate their magic water/sugar pill/alcohol by something that is not supposed to be in there (That is aside from the non-existent ingredients) according to the homeopathic pharmacopoeia then and only then can the FDA go after them.

 

[Midnitte]

lint gravy[/url]":126yh6ri]

bag[/url]":126yh6ri]Can it be? Please? Tell me homeopathic "remedies" will be included in this crackdown.

Homeopathy may be useless quackery but that's all it is: useless. The stuff they're talking about contains undeclared and unregulated toxic pharmaceuticals made in China. Nobody ever died from homeopathy. (Though they do occasionally die because they use it for serious diseases and don't seek real treatment.)

Well, that all depends on quality control.

Wasn't there an Ars article about how many supplements/homeopathic substances don't even contain the chemicals they claim to contain?