Healthy Skepticism Library item: 5871

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Publication type: news

Birnbauer W.
ACCC: natural therapy a sham
The Age (Melbourne) 2006 Aug 13
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/accc-natural-therapy-a-sham/2006/08/12/1154803145326.html

Full text:

ACCC: natural therapy a sham

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/accc-natural-therapy-a-sham/2006/08/12/1154803145326.html

William Birnbauer
August 13, 2006

AUSTRALIA’S competition watchdog has instituted legal proceedings
against the Menopause Institute of Australia, owned by medical
entrepreneur Dr Gary Aaron and Sydney property developer John Dalley.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleges the institute
has engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in its advertising and
promotions of natural hormone replacement.

The so-called institute was established in January 2003, just months
after United States researchers announced contentious findings, now
considered overblown, that linked combinations of hormone replacement
therapy (HRT) with increased risks of breast cancer, heart attack,
stroke and blood clots.

The institute’s stated aim was to provide women with “natural” HRT as an
alternative to the synthetic hormones implicated in the US study.

A hearing is listed for August 31 in the Federal Court.

In May 2004, Australia’s health-advertising regulator, the Therapeutic
Goods Advertising Code Council, directed the Menopause Institute to
withdraw advertising that it found could mislead the public, arouse
unrealistic expectations, and lead to fear and distress.

While Dr Aaron made submissions to the advertising council’s panel on
behalf of the Menopause Institute, one of the respondents was listed as
the Advanced Medical Institute, owned by Jacov Vaisman, which operates
about 40 men’s impotence clinics in Australia.

In December 2003, the Federal Court ordered the Advanced Medical
Institute (AMI) to repay dissatisfied customers and publish six weeks of
corrective newspaper advertisements after finding it had engaged in
misleading or deceptive advertising.

In July 2004, the ACCC launched legal proceedings against the AMI,
game-show host Ian Turpie, and a publicist for misleading and deceptive
conduct in advertising a nasal spray for erectile dysfunction.

Dr Aaron and Mr Vaisman are directors of On Clinic International, which
operates from the same office as the AMI in Sydney’s Darlinghurst.

In 1996, Mr Vaisman’s On Clinic Australia was prosecuted for illegally
importing $500,000 worth of unregistered drugs. The charges were proved,
but no conviction was recorded.

Mr Dalley is a director of the Menopause Institute and a shareholder
through his Radley Investment Co. He referred The Sunday Age to Dr
Aaron, whose PR firm said he supported improvements in standards and any
further regulation.