Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15280

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Bracey A.
Dubious complementary medicine ads set to face increased scrutiny
Medical Observer (Australia) 2009 Mar 20
http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/news/dubious-complementary-medicine-ads-set-to-face-increased-scrutiny

Full text:

UNSCRUPULOUS advertisers of complementary medicines may come under tighter control with an overhaul of the enforcement of the Therapeutic Goods Advertising code.

Senator Jan McLucas, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, told MO she was concerned enforcement of the code – including the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA) complaints resolution panel – was not “working efficiently and effectively.”

“I have asked the TGA to prepare advice on possible changes,” she said.
“Preliminary discussions have taken place with the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Council.”

The senator expressed her concerns following a special meeting with Dr Ken Harvey, senior research fellow at La Trobe University’s School of Public Health regarding the marketing of complementary weight-loss treatment ‘FatMagnet’.

The complaints resolution panel found in September last year that FatMagnet’s advertising breached numerous sections of the code regarding use of misleading claims, exploiting consumers’ lack of knowledge and use of unbalanced statements.

The offending product information remains widely available despite the panel’s request that the advertising materials be withdrawn. Dr Harvey has filed a subsequent complaint to the TGA.

In its advertising material, FatMagnet’s advertiser Cat Media Pty Ltd claimed the active ingredient chitosan had a “magnetic binding affinity for lipids or fats in the digestive tract.”
Advertisements claimed the product contained “a substance used to clean up oil spills in the Atlantic Ocean” and allowed fat to be “passed out of the body” without contributing to calorie intake.

Associate Professor Leon Simons, director of the lipid clinic at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, told MO there was “not a single shred of scientific evidence” that chitosan reduced fat absorption in the intestine.

Cat Media failed to respond to Medical Observer’s request for comment and evidence supporting its claims in advertising materials.

“This case study is just the latest of many in which sponsors of complementary medicine have ignored the determinations of the [complaints resolution panel] and the TGA has also failed to follow-up or take any action in these matters,” Dr Harvey wrote in his complaint.

A TGA spokesperson said further regulatory action against Cat Media was being considered