Here's an account of the issue
The issue for GUMM is guilt by association. Like it or not QGLY and GUMM are in similar business's (as the litigation infer's as well). Trouble for one will mean trouble for the other.....not only in the investor mind (probably a greater concern) but in the consumer mind as well.
Mad2
Copyright 1999 Information Access Company,
a Thomson Corporation Company;
IAC (SM) Newsletter Database (TM)
Copyright 1999 Marketletter Publications Ltd.
Nutraceuticals International
December 1, 1999
SECTION: Pg. NA ; 1362-5411
IAC-ACC-NO: 57949813
LENGTH: 410 words
HEADLINE: FTC pulls up Quigley, QVC over zinc claims.
AUTHOR-ABSTRACT:
THIS IS THE FULL TEXT: COPYRIGHT 1999 Marketletter Publications Ltd.
BODY:
The US Federal Trade Commission has taken action against Quigley Corp and the QVC shopping channel network for making unsubstantiated claims for Quigley's Cold-Eeze homeopathic zinc lozenges. The two companies have now agreed not to claim that the product can prevent colds, reduce the risk of pneumonia, fight allergies and ease cold symptoms in children, although the settlement does not affect Cold-Eeze's main claim that it can reduce the severity and duration of cold symptoms in adults.
Quigley also settled charges that it made unsubstantiated claims in advertisements for Kids-Eeze Bubble-Gum regarding the product's ability to reduce the severity of cold symptoms in children. Copies of the complaints are available on the FTC website at www.ftc.gov.
"These settlements will ensure that consumers are no longer being misled by unsubstantiated claims about these products," commented Jodie Bernstein, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection in a statement, adding that "they also will help remind marketers of their responsibility to back up all advertising promises."
The FTC issued an advertising guide for dietary supplements and related products last year (NI vol 3, no 12), which states that all health claims must be presented truthfully and that advertising must be backed up by scientific evidence. There is no data to support zinc's efficacy in preventing colds and pneumonia and treating allergies, and a Quigley-sponsored study reported last year failed to show efficacy for reducing the symptoms or duration of colds in children (NI vol 3, no 7).
Quigley said the Commission's action related to spontaneous statements made on the QVC cable network "several years ago," and slammed newswire reports published just after the announcement as being misleading. "The Commission's action only involves those narrow areas in which consumers have told us the product works, but for which we currently have no scientific studies," said the firm, adding that its primary adult claim had been validated in two controlled studies and that Cold-Eeze "is the only product in its category on the world market that is clinically proven to reduce the duration and severity of common cold symptoms."
Quigley also disputes the results of the pediatric study reported last year, on the grounds that it used a reduced dose of zinc and contained "86 violations of the study protocol, which rendered the study meaningless."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
IAC-CREATE-DATE: December 3, 1999
LOAD-DATE: December 04, 1999
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