Two “Hoodia” Supplements Banned in 10 California Counties

Posted By elissa on Jan 22, 2012 | 2 comments

Not only did the manufacturer of the supps in question make unsupported claims for Hoodia in its products… it also neglected to include the Hoodia at all!

According to a press release from the Santa Cruz County DA’s office:

Prosecutors from Santa Cruz, Napa, Alameda, Marin, Monterey, Orange, Santa Clara, Shasta, Solano, and Sonoma County District Attorney’s Offices, reached a settlement with Florida-based defendants GeoPharma, Inc., Breakthrough Engineered Nutrition, Inc., Mihir Taneja and Carol Dore-Falcone. Under the terms of the settlement the companies and individuals are prohibited from selling or delivering to California residents the dietary supplements called DEX-L10, Hoodia Gordonii DEX-L10, DEX-L10 Complete and/or Hoodia Gordonii DEX-L10 Complete, or any dietary supplement that states on the label that it contains Hoodia gordonii or that has Hoodia Gordonii in the name of the product, unless such product contains the amount of Hoodia Gordonii set forth on the label. The case began as an investigation by Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s office and was later joined in by other counties.

In court papers filed by the district attorneys, they noted that Hoodia gordonii first came to the public’s awareness in November 2004, when the television show 60 Minutes reported on the use of a native succulent plant, known as Hoodia gordonii, by San tribesmen in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa to suppress appetite on long journeys. The tribesmen reported that they cut off parts of the Hoodia plant and sucked on it during long walks and that it curbed their appetite. Partially as a result of this news story, numerous companies began to produce pills, capsules, gel caps and liquids that allegedly contained Hoodia and marketed them to consumers as appetite suppressant and weight loss products. This created a demand and a corresponding price increase for Hoodia. Products that advertised they contained Hoodia were much in demand and the supply of Hoodia, an endangered plant, became much more limited. Some suppliers began substituting less expensive material and claimed it was Hoodia. Companies began testing their products and other company’s products for the presence of Hoodia and found many products on the market did not contain any Hoodia. Two of these products were Dex-L10 and Dex-L10 Complete.

The District Attorneys had earlier obtained an injunction against the company, which prevented the sale of their products. Following the injunction, the parent company GeoPharma, declared bankruptcy leaving a company once traded on the New York stock exchange, in financial ruin. “When a company uses false or deceptive advertising to sell their products, we are proscribed by law to stop the company from continuing the advertising and to obtain civil penalties to penalize the company. While our goal is to stop unlawful advertising, this company decided they were not able to continue in business without violating our laws”, Lee stated.

The settlement includes an injunction against the principals of the company, Mihir Taneja and Carol Dore-Falcone. They are enjoined from making any claims about the efficacy of a product without having competent and reliable scientific evidence that substantiates such claim or representation.

If the Tampa Bay Business Journal is anything to go by, this lawsuit may have been the least of GeoPharma’s problems. Hopefully, the company’s financial issues will keep it (and the company principals) out of the supplement biz for a long time to come.

(h/t Natural Products Insider)