Not a surprise, penalties I think should be higher

[Guest guest]

In order to support your product claims, you need actual real research, just

saying...

http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/news/2012/01/diet-pills-banned-in-10-ca-co\

unties.aspx

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.-Two weight management

<http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/topics/weight-management.aspx> dietary

supplements are banned from sale in 10 California counties, after prosecutors

found they did not contain the labeled Hoodia. The counties reached a settlement

with Florida-based maker of the two products, GeoPharma Inc., as well as

Breakthrough Engineered Nutrition, Mihir Taneja and Carol Dore-Falcone banning

the sale of Dex-L10 and Dex-L10 Complete products in Santa Cruz, Santa Clara,

Napa, Alameda, Marin, Monterey, Orange, Shasta, Solano and Sonoma counties.

As part of the settlement, Taneja and Dore-Falcone, the principals of the

company, are also prohibited from making claims about the efficacy of a product

without having competent and reliable scientific evidence. This is the same

marketing claims standard followed by FTC, and as Marc Ullman, partner at

Ullman, Shapiro and Ullman noted, " I am unaware of any controlled,

well-designed study that demonstrates efficacy for the kind of claims we see for

a lot of hoodia products. The FTC has also said it haven't seen a single study

that provides scientific evidence for hoodia as a weight loss aid. "

The labels claimed the supplements contained Hoodia Gordonii, a succulent known

for its appetite-suppressant properties, but, according to the Mercury News,

Santa Cruz County prosecutors tests found the herb was not in the supplements.

In response to the tests, county prosecutors filed an injunction against the

company, which lead to a ban of the sale in Santa Cruz county in September 2011.

" Here we are not only seeing the claims that bring regulatory attention, " Ullman

said, " we see they weren't even bothering to put in the hoodia. " He added,

" Based on what I've seen it seems like an appropriate case. When

regulators-local, state, federal-can demonstrate this kind of disregard for the

rules, bring enforcement action and push a company to follow the rules, I think

they do the whole industry a favor. "

While the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's office started the

investigation, it was later joined by prosecutors in the nine other counties.

The suit was filed in Solano County.

The Santa Cruz Patch reported GeoPharma, which was once listed on the New York

Stock Exchange, went bankrupt after the injunction.

Late last year, the FTC settled cases against

<http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/news/2011/11/ftc-settles-hoodia-claims-ca\

ses.aspx> three individuals and two companies associated with a 2009 complaint

involving claims made for hoodia products.

S. Kalman PhD, RD, FACN

Director, BD - Nutrition & Applied Clinical Trials

Miami Research Associates

6141 Sunset Drive

Suite 301

Miami, FL. 33143

Direct -

Office ext. 5109

Fax

Email: dkalman@...

Web: www.miamiresearch.com<www.mraclinicalresearch.com/>

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Challenge<http://www.active.com/donate/vegas11southfl/SFLDKalman>!