Healthy Skepticism Library item: 12411

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Publication type: news

McArthur G.
AMA attacks weight-loss pills industry
The Herald Sun 2008 Jan 7
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23015042-2862,00.html

Full text:

SHAM weight-loss medicines are being listed for sale because medicine controls are too weak, the Australian Medical Association says.

The AMA’s stance has been backed by new Melbourne research, which reveals that in the past decade the Therapeutic Goods Administration has listed more than 1000 “weight loss” products without evaluating their effectiveness.

Under existing regulations, the TGA can classify products as “listed goods” if they contain herbs regarded as safe, even if they have not been tested for their usefulness.

Traditional medicines must pass stringent scientific evaluation and clinical trials before being classified as “registered medicines”.

AMA president Rosanna Capolingua said complementary treatments should meet similar standards.

“Consumers need to know that complementary medicines are often not evaluated for efficacy — meaning there is no evidence, there is no study behind what may be claimed for complementary medicine,” she said.

Last year, then health minister Tony Abbott said Australians spent about $1 billion a year on complementary and alternative medicines such as vitamins, homeopathic medicines, and traditional Asian medicines.

La Trobe University researcher Dr Ken Harvey examined the TGA’s listings for weight-loss treatments between 1996 and 2006.

He said he was shocked by the ease with which sham treatments could be listed beside more creditable complementary products.

“This has created a window of opportunity for unscrupulous manufacturers to flood the market with stuff that doesn’t work and is heavily promoted. And they seem to make quite a lot of money out of it,” he said.

Dr Harvey said manufacturers could simply select herbs from a list regarded by the TGA as safe, enter a product name and the list of ingredients online, and pay a fee to receive a certificate of listing.

The TGA’s website says that claims about listed medicines are not subject to pre-market evaluation, but that manufacturers must certify that they do have evidence that they work.

Dr Harvey’s research, published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, found the only present safeguard is a Complaints Resolution Panel. Complaints that are lodged can take up to four months to be heard.

In 2006 there were 350 complaints, more than double the number in the previous year.

There were at least 28 complaints lodged against the products of one company, Cat Media, between March 2004 and November 2007, 22 of which were upheld. It breached the TGA’s Goods Advertising Code because its claims about the effectiveness of its product, Xantrax, were found to be misleading and unrealistic.

But Dr Harvey said many claims were never tested, because consumers did not complain.

“Obesity is a genuine problem in the community, but there is no solution other than diet and exercise. And yet these things are promoted as a pill for every ill,” he said.

Cat Media could not be contacted for comment yesterday.