Limbaugh shills Zicam whos inventor has a diploma degree and the other inventor peddles bogus bird flu & sars remedies. Zicam also being investigated by FTC. You can read all about Zicam here coldcure.com
The Men Behind ZICAM
washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, January 31, 2006; Page HE05
Like other scientific entrepreneurs, Robert Steven DAVIDSON thought zinc might be a promising treatment for the common cold. But unlike many inventors of drugs, DAVIDSON and his colleague Charles B. HENSLEY, who hold patents on ZICAM, have unusual backgrounds.
DAVIDSON received a bachelor's degree in 2004 from a "virtual" university, Excelsior College in Albany, N.Y. He lists himself as a PhD, a degree he obtained from an unaccredited and now-defunct university in Spain.
His colleague and co-inventor HENSLEY holds a doctorate in physiology from the University of Southern California and is currently chief executive officer of PRB Pharmaceuticals based in Cypress, Calif. HENSLEY recently received a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about the sale over the Internet of an unapproved drug his company makes to treat bird flu. HENSLEY previously developed a weight-loss remedy that involves sniffing "specially developed aromas."
DAVIDSON, who has contributed articles to Men's Fitness magazine, says his doctorate in biopharmaceutical project management and his MBA in international finance were earned at the American University of Asturias in Asturias, Spain, in the late 1990s. The school was closed in 2000 for violations of Spanish law, records show, and is considered a diploma mill by American authorities.
DAVIDSON, who sold his interest in ZICAM several years ago when he left to start another biotech firm, said he was unaware of any problems with the school in Spain. It is unusual to earn a doctorate before a bachelor's degree, he said in an interview, but his advanced degrees are legitimate. "I did work, a research paper and a dissertation."
He declined to discuss whether any safety questions arose during ZICAM's development and testing.
DAVIDSON said he met HENSLEY years ago at Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles, where he was taking classes and HENSLEY was a professor.
On Nov. 23, the FDA sent HENSLEY a letter about Vira 38, an antiviral compound marketed on PRB's Web site as effective in treating influenza, bird flu and SARS. The regulatory agency told HENSLEY he was violating federal law by selling an unapproved drug and warned that he and his company could face further legal action including "seizure of illegal products."
HENSLEY did not respond to e-mails or telephone calls.
-- Sandra G. Boodman
washingtonpost.com
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Rush Limbaugh Recommends ZICAM on audio
ZICAM.asx'>http://mfile.akamai.com/5020/wma/rushlimb.download.akamai.com/5020/clips/04/12/120704_2_ZICAM.asx
Here is the other product Rush Limbaugh endorses on his radio show. Cortislim, who had FTC letter about claims and Dr. Greg who has diploma mill degree. But I warn you. Get ready to laugh alot
edresearch.com
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rushlimbaugh.com
ZICAM Works
December 7, 2004
Listen to Rush Conduct the Broadcast Excellence Transcribed Below...(audio)
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
Calm down in there, Mr. Snerdley! Snerdley is laughing and it's hard for me to maintain my composure. Oh, he's having a coughing spasm in there. I got rid of my cold. You know what I did to get rid of my cold? I knew I had a cold coming on yesterday, so I got some of that ZICAM stuff. You ever heard of that folks, ZICAM? Somebody alert the sales staff to turn on the radio and listen to this so they can get a client out there. I'm going to count down from ten so somebody can call the sales staff, well, they're out busy selling. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. All right, ten seconds, hopefully a member of the sales staff is listening. ZICAM, it looks like the end of a one-ended Q-Tip, a cotton swab, and what you do is massage the inside of both nostrils with the cotton swab that has the gook on it that has the magic in it. It's zinc-based, that's why it's called ZICAM. What you do is you rub it in there, and then you hold your nose after do you that on both sides. Hold your nose for ten seconds, you can talk, you can do anything you want, but you just have to hold your nose for ten seconds and then voila you're supposed to have the zinc in your system that's supposed to attack the evil common cold virus.
Well yesterday I had this little tickle in my throat which was causing some of you to think I sounded like I was choking, and it felt like it. I mean, all of a sudden I choked up and couldn't speak, had to cough. I put some of that in yesterday afternoon. I'd given Snerdley my last two because he's had a cold for like two years, but I asked him for one back and I put it in there and I feel a hundred percent. I'm not making this up. I know the story sounds like it's less than serious, but I'm being dead serious and this is the second time in the past three months I've tried this stuff, and it works. If you do it early enough. Now, I don't think it will get rid of Snerdley's two-year cold. You're supposed to use at the first sign that you think you're coming down with a cold. Don't be a hypochondriac about it, because you don't want to run around constantly swabbing the inside of your nose; people will talk. But -- (laughing) -- it works, I'm telling you, first time you put it up there it works. See, it has for me. ZICAM, the official cold remedy of the EIB Network. All right, now, somebody in the sales staff could record that, take it to the media buyer and, bam, we got a new client. That's how business works. I combine business and content in the same masterful presentation.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let's go to Monroe, Michigan, and Laurie. Hi, Laurie, welcome to the EIB Network. CALLER: Hi, Rush!
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I'm a health care professional, I'm a registered nurse.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: And I do want to let you know that use ZICAM with caution. There are people who abuse ZICAM and they permanently lost their sense of smell with it. And they haven't pulled it off the shelves --
RUSH: How much, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Pull it off the shelves, they can't do that.
CALLER: Well, I know, they haven't done that yet, and they are looking into these cases --
RUSH: How many people, and how often did they use the stuff?
CALLER: Well, that's what they're looking into. But the people that I've read about have used it according to the directions on the packaging, so you want to use it with caution, because we don't know if some of these people had extra sensitivities, we don't know really the case, but --
RUSH: Oh, man, you know --
CALLER: -- be real careful with it.
RUSH: Isn't it just the way this is --
CALLER: I know.
RUSH: -- they finally come away with something that works on the common cold and they're going to pull it off the market. I can't believe this.
CALLER: I think they really don't want to pull this off the market. ZICAM is saying --
RUSH: Yes, they do. Yes, they do. They don't want anything on the market that works. All they want is stuff on the market that they've got to pull off because it kills you.
CALLER: Well, the people who produce ZICAM say that the permanent loss of smell is not related to the ZICAM, but the doctors who have seen these patients are saying there's got to be some kind of link to it. So just use it with caution. We love you here in South Rockwood, Michigan, and we don't want you to lose your smell.
RUSH: Thank you -- (laughing) -- my sense of smell.
CALLER: That's right.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Your smell, too.
RUSH: Thank you, Laurie, I appreciate it. I love you for that, appreciate that, thanks so much. Folks, these alarmist claims out there, anything you buy over-the-counter, have you taken out the warning packet that's in there and read the possible side effects of what can happen when you take a Dristan? It's everything from heart palpitations to cold sweat to nausea to diarrhea to hospitalizations. It's incredible, all these liability warnings out there. There's nothing I think you can buy over the counter that doesn't have this long list of potential maladies that could befall you if you take this particular product. Sense of smell, I haven't heard this by ZICAM, but we'll look into it. Let me ask you, how many of you people would give up your sense of smell if you never got a cold again? Well, okay, if you couldn't taste then you'd lose weight. You have to look at these things positively. There's a win-win in practically everything that can happen to you out there. All right. I appreciate, Laurie, our medical report today, registered nurse from Monroe, Michigan.
END TRANSCRIPT
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"And it's not easy to take the company's claims for safety of the product at face value when the man who claims to have developed the product, one Robert S. Davidson, parts his name in the middle (as in R. Steven Davidson) and boasts a Ph.D. in "biopharmacuetical project management" from the so-called American University of Asturias, a Spanish-based diploma mill "university" that was shut down by the Spanish government after being caught issuing what purported to be advanced degrees in almost anything, to anyone whose checks didn't bounce. "
COLD-EEZE SQUEEZE
By CHRISTOPHER BYRON
November 8, 2004 -- Remember when all of a sudden there wasn't enough flu vaccine to go around, and the subject somehow came up in one of the Presidential debates? And remember when George Bush said, in so many words, "Look, it's simple, just don't get a flu shot this year..."?
Well, out here at Curmudgeonly Arms, where the baleful moan of the cold north wind sweeps over the moors from November to May sending the body count of its victims soaring, the Curmudgeonlies stood brave, tall and true, for we figured, No flu vaccine? No problem!
That is because we Curmudgeonlies have long known the secret to a winter free of the wheezing and sneezing that afflicts the rest of humankind when the cruel winds blow.
Our secret is, of course, Cold-eeze throat lozenges, which a person may purchase at any reputable pharmacy (or indeed 7-Eleven), for $5.00 at retail give or take ? which is to say, for roughly half the price of a standup pepperoni-and-cheese pie at Ray's Famous Pizza.
So imagine our consternation upon learning, from a wanderer through the wintry gloom, that Cold-eeze ? when spritzed into the nose as a nasal aerosol instead of taken orally as a lozenge ? might not actually kill you but can apparently destroy your sense of smell.
What's that? Cold-eeze nasal spray, a health menace?
Yes, verily it is so ? at least if one is to judge from a lawsuit that was filed last week in Bucks County, Penn.
As reported by our informant, his words broken by the staccato of his hacking and consumptive cough, eight different consumer plaintiffs in the suit say they used Cold-eeze nasal spray and now wouldn't be able to smell Osama bin Laden if he were standing right next to them.
Fortunately, the honest tradesmen at Quigley Corp., producers of Cold-eeze, had already begun heading for the nasal spray exit door when the lawsuit hit.
They had informed their distributors in mid-September that the company had decided to drop the nasal spray product line because consumer demand for it hadn't developed as expected.
THIS was followed in due course by last week's lawsuit, and quicker than you could say "Anybody got a Kleenex?" the company response had hit the PR newswires, asserting that even a "cursory look" at the suit had been enough to convince Quigley brass that the complaint was "frivolous and without merit," and that the company intends to defend itself "vigorously" because the only thing Cold-eeze destroys is germs.
Being of an odd and suspicious sort, it thus took no time at all before our shingle-wracked manservant, Igor, could be observed struggling up the twisting stairway to my writer's garret at the top of the north tower.
Presenting himself breathless at the doorway, and with his hunchback blocking further progress, he declared: "Here, sire, take a whiff of these...!" and placed upon the floor before me a folio of Quigley Corp. documents.
He had arranged them for ex-Clinton national security affairs advisor Sandy Berger to filch from the files of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Then cackling in his special way, he departed, maneuvering his hunchback down the darkened staircase and across the courtyard to his abode in the corn crib, his parting words still ringing hauntingly, and mysteriously, in my ears: "Beware the ides of evil, sire, when darkness exhalts the moor."
The documents that Igor left behind for my perusal do give one pause, for they show that lawsuits by customers claiming damages from the use of Cold-eeze nasal spray had been accumulating against Quigley since as early as February of this year, when a Connecticut woman named Paige D. Davidson claimed using Cold-eeze nasal spray destroyed her sense of smell and that she'd never gotten it back.
Then in September, a Minnesota couple ? Sheryl and Howard Polski ? claimed the same thing, asserting that they too used had some Cold-eeze nasal spray, in December 2003, and that their colds had gone away but so had their senses of smell and taste, never to return.
In fact, even as lawyers for the Polskis were preparing their complaint, Quigley's brass were informing the company's distributors that they were dropping the nasal spray form of Cold-eeze from Quigley's product list. A month later, on Oct. 13, the company filed a Form 8K report at the SEC, making the news public to everyone.
QUIGLEY'S strategy for waving away these claims with words like "frivolous" and "without merit" seems to rest heavily on the assertion that Cold-eeze nasal spray was exhaustively safety-tested in what last week's press release from the company described as a "double-blind, placebo-controlled study" prior to introducing it to the market in September 2003.
But Igor's documents showed that references to double- blind placebo-controlled studies have appeared nearly two dozen times in Quigley's SEC filings over the last seven years, and the references have nothing to do with the nasal spray form of the treatment.
Instead, the references all involve one or the other of two early 1990s studies that purported to test the efficacy of the key ingredient in Cold- eeze ? so-called zinc gluconate ? when consumed in lozenge form as a means of treating the common cold.
In fact, it would appear that Quigley would never have become involved in the marketing of a zinc-based nasal spray had it not been for the apparent success a rival company called Matrixx Initiatives Inc. had been having with its own zinc- based nasal spray, which it called ZICAM, and had begun marketing in late 1999.
But by the time Quigley announced in February 2003 that it was going to be bringing its own version of a zinc-based nasal spray to market later that year, Matrixx Initiatives was already hip-deep in lawsuits from nearly 100 customers who claimed that they'd used ZICAM and lost their sense of smell.
Those claimants now top 175 and are continuing to grow.
And it's not easy to take the company's claims for safety of the product at face value when the man who claims to have developed the product, one Robert S. Davidson, parts his name in the middle (as in R. Steven Davidson) and boasts a Ph.D. in "biopharmacuetical project management" from the so-called American University of Asturias, a Spanish-based diploma mill "university" that was shut down by the Spanish government after being caught issuing what purported to be advanced degrees in almost anything, to anyone whose checks didn't bounce.
Requests for an interview with Davidson were fielded at his California office by a cagey fellow who identified himself simply as "Dave," and promised to get the request to Davidson.
At press-time neither man had returned the call.
* Please send e-mail to: cbyron@nypost.com
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UPDATE 1-Matrixx says FTC investigating ZICAM ads
Tue Apr 4, 2006 9:37 AM ET
NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) - Matrixx Initiatives Inc. (MTXX.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Tuesday said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission was probing the company's advertising for a variety of products, including some of its ZICAM cold remedies.
The company, in a filing with securities regulators, said the purpose of the probe was to find whether it engaged in any unfair or deceptive acts or practices.
On March 21, FTC investigators in Cleveland asked Matrixx to provide information to the agency by April 27, the company said.
"The company is fully cooperating with the FTC and believes that its advertisements and promotional activities are accurate and comply with applicable laws and regulations in all material respects," Matrixx said.
Phoenix-based Matrixx also said the Council of Better Business Bureaus recently said that scientific evidence substantiated Matrixx's advertising claims that using ZICAM nasal gel and swabs resulted in a less severe cold.
ZICAM cold medicine, introduced in 1999, is the company's flagship product.
Matrixx said its net income declined to $3.1 million in 2005, from $5.0 million in 2004, because of an $8.5 million charge to settle lawsuits with consumers who alleged that the medicine caused them to lose their senses of smell and taste. |
