The Texas Attorney General’s office has announced that its litigation against Mannatech has been concluded with a settlement agreement. The agreement mandates that Mannatech return $4m to customers and its founder, Sam Caster, must pay $1m in fines. Caster is also barred from serving as a director, officer, or employee…
The bright spot in today’s news is that the FDA has announced its initiative against “contaminated weight loss products.” One has to applaud the agency’s efforts because diet supplements, in general, and weight loss products, in particular, have been “spiked” with pharmaceutical drugs for some time. The reason diet supplement…
Judge Jack T. Camp, of the U.S. District Court, has sentenced the CEO of Hi-Tech Phamaceuticals, Jared Wheat, to 50 months in prison for illegally selling knock-off prescription drugs over the internet. He was also fined $50,000, and was required, along with the company and other defendants, to forfeit $3…
The diet supplement industry has used innumerable methods of staying ahead of the posse (the FDA, the FTC, State AGs, and the courts). They have simply outrun regulation, and outfoxed the regulators. The industry has outlobbied the regulators, as well. Despite decades of scientific data and media disclosures, the industry…
Nine scientists at the FDA sent a letter to President Obama on Wednesday to plead for major reform at the agency. Their central concern is with the agency’s scientific review process for medical devices, which they characterize as having beeen “corrupted and distorted by current FDA managers, thereby placing the…
The potential for injury from the antibiotic flouroquinolone (Cipro, Levaquin) has been known for over 20 years, yet it was only recently that the FDA told the drug’s manufacturers to add a black box warning about the increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture. The FDA stopped short of requiring…
We at the Alaska Personal Injury Law Group have been closely following preemption litigation because the results are so central to consumer-based litigation. Today, we find hope in the news that the United States Supreme Court has rejected the claims by Philip Morris that federal regulation of tobacco companies preempted…
The Alaska Personal Injury Law Group recently posted an article about how the FDA and other federal agencies have systematically attempted to use preemption to make manufacturers immune from suit for injuries caused by their defective products. One point of discussion was how the FDA has weakened regulatory protection of…
The House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has released its report about the Bush Administration’s imposition of new preemption policies within the FDA. Historically, the FDA viewed litigation brought by those harmed by medical devices or medications as a complement to the agency’s regulatory efforts to protect…
Just because an herbal product is advertised to be “all natural,” this does not mean that it is safe. “All natural” is a marketing term used to convince you to buy a product–it is code for “no side effects.” In fact, most diet supplements are untested as to both their…