Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2738

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Goddard J.
Feds fight bogus weight-loss schemes
Toronto Star 2005 Nov 5
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar%2FUtilities%2FJavaSearch&searchstring=weight-loss&Submit2.x=12&Submit2.y=12&Submit2=Go%21

Keywords:
DTCA weight-loss fraud

Notes:

Ralph Faggotter’s Comments:

This article contains the kernel of an idea.

Why not have compulsory government health warnings attached to each D.T.C. ad about the dangers of the pharmaceutical product which is being advertised direct to the public?

Full text:

Nov. 5, 2005. 07:36 AM

Feds fight bogus weight-loss schemes
North American sweep of websites
Canadian firms among targeted

JOHN GODDARD
STAFF REPORTER

Weight-loss fraud is becoming so serious Canada has joined the United States and Mexico in a continent-wide crackdown.

“Obesity and overweight … pose major long-term health risks requiring proven and effective treatments, not … fraudulent products,” Health Canada said in a statement.

Bogus weight-loss schemes, the department said, “endanger health, provide false hope and defraud (customers) of billions of dollars.”

So far, 734 North American companies have been targeted in an aggressive campaign, enforcement officials from Health Canada and the federal Competition Bureau said. The drive began last year and only now is being publicized.

One company caught in the North American sweep was Brampton-based Urus Industrial Corp.‘s Koolatron Inc.

A consent agreement reached between Urus and the Competition Bureau cited Koolatron’s TV infomercials and a website. The company was selling the AB Energizer, an electronic muscle stimulator belt said to produce weight loss and an athletic physique. It came with a special conductive gel and sold for $99.

“In our view, it wasn’t an effective weight-loss product at all,” senior enforcement officer Brent Homan of the federal Competition Bureau said.

When challenged by the bureau in 2004, Koolatron wasn’t able to prove its AB Energizer worked as advertised, and agreed to pay a $75,000 fine, refund the purchase price to thousands of customers – the number remains undisclosed – and stop selling the product.

Koolatron also manufactures food coolers and warmers used by campers and travellers. Nobody from the company could comment on the case yesterday, a spokesperson said.

A second company caught in the crackdown was Performance Marketing Ltd. of Nanaimo, B.C.

The Competition Bureau said the company sold two types of phony diet patches, Zyapex and Dyapex, for between $39.95 (U.S.) and $109.95.

Sticking such a patch on your body was supposed to “result in a substantial weight loss – three to eight pounds per week – reduce appetite and food cravings, and speed up the metabolism,” Homan said. “(Such claims) start to go beyond the pale.”

When the bureau intervened last year, the firm agreed to stop selling the product, refund customers and post a notice about the settlement on its website.

Performance Marketing officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The actions against the two Canadian companies were part of a three-country initiative known as MUCH – the Mexico, United States, Canada Health Fraud Working Group.

The group consists of health and law-enforcement agencies in the three countries, including Health Canada and the Canadian Competition Bureau.

Of the 734 actions so far taken against companies, 620 have been initiated by Mexico, 65 by Canada and 49 by the United States. No statistics were available on how many were fined or the amount of fines and restitution paid.

“International co-operation is vital,” Homan said. “Companies can be targeting consumers in one country, while producing the product in another country and maybe the money is flowing into another.”

Currently, the bureau’s main focus on weight-loss fraud is Project Fairweb, Homan said. Enforcers identify websites selling phony diet products and send them warning letters demanding they either modify the product or promotion or stop selling the product.

“On warning letters, we’ve had a 73 per cent level of compliance,” he said. “In the instances where we believe there remains a problem and individuals don’t respond, then the litigated route and formal investigation remain an option.” Confidentiality laws mean details cannot be made public, he said.

To help warn consumers about phony products, Canada and the U.S. have also launched a website, http://www.wemarket4u.net/fatfoe. It appears to push an eggplant extract called FatFoe. All the marketing clichés are there:

“Enjoy your favourite foods.”

“Lose up to two pounds a day.”

“Without having to diet or exercise.”

“Binds with food to block the absorption of fat, carbs and calories.”

But when the customer clicks to order, a page pops up saying the ad is a fake, posted to warn consumers about “diet rip-offs.”

While the Competition Bureau targets mainly websites, Health Canada is moving to stop illegal weight-loss drugs at the border.

Ironically, in the context of trilateral co-operation, many of the products are legal in the U.S. but illegal in Canada.

Or sometimes the problem arises when a drug is approved for one use in Canada but marketed for another use, in this case weight loss, said Health Canada spokesperson Jirina Vlk.

The department has sent 13 letters to companies demanding they cease shipping certain drugs into Canada or remove certain ingredients to comply with Canadian health regulations.

The drugs cannot be identified due to confidentiality rules, Vlk said, but are often promoted as “fat burning,” “muscle building” or “fitness” oriented.

The only proven route to healthy weight loss, Health Canada reminds consumers, is a long-term commitment to exercise and a balanced diet.

“Fraudulent products and programs target vulnerable consumers and simply don’t work.”