National
Desk
| June 23, 2003, Monday
Studies of
Dietary Supplements Come Under Growing
Scrutiny
By FORD FESSENDEN (NYT) 2251 words
Late Edition - Final , Section A ,
Page 1 , Column 1
ABSTRACT
- Swelling tide of litigation raises serious
questions about way makers of dietary
supplements use--and often misuse--promise
of scientific proof to market their
products; in last eight months, three
leading manufacturers of weight-loss pills
have been hit with false-advertising
verdicts in millions of dollars; fourth has
been rebuked by federal judge for hiding
evidence; Missouri attorney general and
group of district attorneys in California
have brought false-advertising suits against
manufacturers; Congress is demanding
research records of Cytodyne, maker of
ephedra-based weight-loss pill Xenadrine
RFA-1, supplement implicated in death of
Baltimore Orioles pitcher; Judge Ronald L
Styn, who handed down $12.5 million
false-advertising judgment against Cytodyne,
says researchers set out to create study
that 'justified money being spent' by
Cytodyne and would ensure that they received
further work from company; Cytodyne and
several other manufacturers have refashioned
weight-loss products without ephedra, but
experts say switch in ingredients does
nothing to alter industry's reliance on
questionable science; supplement makers are
not obliged to do any research, but have
embraced it as good advertising tool;
experts contend that because industry is not
regulated, its research is sometimes less
than strictly scientific; photos (M) When a
California judge handed down a $12.5 million
false-advertising judgment against the maker
of an ephedra-based weight-loss pill late
last month, he also issued what amounted to
a bill of reproach against the science of
dietary supplements.
The company, Cytodyne Technologies, maker
of Xenadrine RFA-1, the supplement
implicated in the death of a Baltimore
Orioles pitcher, had not just exaggerated
the findings of clinical trials it
commissioned, Superior Court Judge Ronald L.
Styn said in ruling on a class-action suit,
but had also cajoled some researchers into
fudging results in published scientific
articles.
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