In their continuing battle against substances falsely claiming so that you can help treat or cure influenza, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now targeting producers of health supplements and medicines claiming to become generic versions of medication which have been approved by regulators.
According to Reuters reporter Toni Clarke, the FDA sent letters to nine online supplement distributors warning them about making unauthorized claims their products might be used to fight the influenza virus.
The FDA has demanded the firms “cease deceptive labeling of products as flu remedies and stop selling medicines marketed as generic versions from the prescription flu treatment Tamiflu,” said NBC News Correspondent Linda Carroll.
In one of the letters, the company warned that a drug distributor Supplementality LLC was “improperly offering products intended to diagnose, mitigate, prevent, treat or cure the flu virus,” Clarke said. The agency continued to demand “the organization ℠immediately cease marketing´ in this way.”
She added that the warning “covers products including Resveratrol, Garlic, Echinacea, Elderberry, Ashwagandha and Astragalus Immune System Support,” and Gary Coody, the FDA´s national health fraud coordinator, emphasized there were “no over-the-counter products that shorten the duration or severity of influenza.”
Coody told Jonathan D. Rockoff from the Wall Street Journal a few of the Internet retailers contacted through the FDA had already taken care of immediately the agency´s warning.
For example, he explained Kosher Vitamin Express, which received the letter on Monday, had already removed the offending substances, including Zahlers Kosher Abreve Advanced Cold & Flu Formula. Others, including www.topsavingspharmacy.com and www.sundrugstore.com, had yet to reply, Rockoff said. Both websites continued marketing “Generic Tamiflu” as of Friday afternoon.
“The FDA hasn’t approved generic versions of Tamiflu or another prescription flu treatment called Relenza,” Rockoff explained. “Nor has the FDA approved any over-the-counter drugs to prevent or cure the flu, although it has green-lighted over-the-counter medicines that reduce fever and relieve muscle aches, congestion along with other symptoms associated with the flu.”
Coody told The Wall Street Journal products like these, sold online, could be counterfeit medications, the incorrect drug disguised like a flu treatment, too weak or too strong. Fortunately, to date the company hasn’t received any reports of patients who fell ill after taking these supplements, he said.
“We want people to take effective preventive measures from the flu,” Coody told Rockoff. “Not only is it getting something totally ineffective, they might possess a false feeling of protection.”
“When a health threat occurs, fraud emerges almost overnight,” he noted in a separate interview with NBC News. “We saw it with the avian flu and H1N1 in ’09. It´s the nature of the Internet and social networking that allows firms almost instant access to consumers, so they can obtain messages out there very quickly.”
The companies contacted by the agency have 15 days to do this before the FDA can pursue legal sanctions against them.
“The FDA will consider whatever means are necessary to steer clear of the marketing of fraudulent flu products to prevent them from proliferating in the marketplace and holds those who are responsible for doing this, accountable,” FDA spokeswoman Sarah Clark-Lynn told Carroll. “This may include considering civil (seizure, injunction) or criminal (prosecution) enforcement action as appropriate.”
