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Wednesday August 16 2000, 5:19 pm Eastern Time FTC Charges Dietary Supplement Co.
By DAVID HO
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Trade Commission charged a New York company Wednesday with making unsubstantiated claims that its dietary supplement can treat children with attention disorders.
Natural Organics Inc., of Melville, N.Y., advertises that its Pedi-Active A.D.D. supplement can alleviate symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and improve the attention span of children who have difficulty focusing on schoolwork, the FTC said in a statement.
"ADHD is a serious condition, and parents who are concerned about it should talk to their children's doctors about appropriate treatment," said Jodie Bernstein, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. She asserted that the company's ads prey on parents seeking alternative treatments.
Physician-prescribed stimulants and behavior therapy are the most common treatment for ADHD, which affects up to 2.5 million school-age children in the United States.
Gerald Kessler, chief executive of Natural Organics, said his company had numerous scientific studies to support its advertising.
"We have asked the FTC to have their experts meet with our experts to determine the validity of studies. They have refused to allow this to happen," Kessler said. "We're going to fight this every step of the way."
The company, which does business as "Nature's Plus," markets and sells a variety of dietary supplements through independent retail stores. Sixty tablets of Pedi-Active A.D.D. sell for $12.56.
This is the FTC's fifth action involving products marketed to treat ADHD. While the commission's complaint begins a legal process seeking to stop future unsupported claims, it doesn't mean any laws have been broken.
Natural Organics stands its ground on FTC challenge
September 01, 2000
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A Melville, New York-based marketer of dietary supplements intends to fight Federal Trade Commission charges that the company made unsubstantiated claims about a product offered as an alternative for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Natural Organics Inc. said that the FTC's allegations involving its Pedia-Active A.D.D. tablets are false and that the company has begun a process of contesting the charges.
"I'm not going to back down. I hate bullies," CEO Gerald Kessler told Reuters Health in a candid interview, during which he promised to return all profits from the sale of the tablets to help children with attention deficit disorder (ADD).
The FTC last month charged Natural Organics and owner Kessler with falsely claiming that the company's Pedia-Active tablets would improve the attention span and scholastic record of children with ADHD and those who have difficulty focusing on school work.
Kessler said that Natural Organics' problems with the FTC began 3-1/2 years ago, when the commission claimed that the company's studies were insufficient. In fact, Kessler said that the company submitted some 200 studies, including 18 double-bind studies, which substantiate its claims for Pedia-Active.
"We're certainly not somebody who goes out and makes claims without verification," he said.
Thus far, Kessler charged, the FTC has failed to produce a single study to support the allegations and has refused to allow its scientists meet with the company's scientists to resolve the issue. "They kept trying to harass us into signing something and we said we're not going to do that," he fumed.
The FTC said that it is seeking to bar Natural Organics from making false claims about treating ADHD and from using the name "A.D.D." or any name that suggests its product can treat or mitigate ADHD.
In a statement issued last month, Jodie Bernstein, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said that consumers are put in "a rough spot" when they can't trust the claims in the ads, particularly for "parents who are trying to do the best for their kids."
But Kessler, who speaks passionately, about natural alternatives to the prescription hyperactivity drug Ritalin, says he, too, is trying to right by parents. As a child, Kessler also experienced the symptoms commonly labeled as ADD or ADHD, a behavioral disorder estimated to affect some 2.5 million school-aged children in the US.
"I was hyperactive, let's put it that way," Kessler said. "They didn't call it ADD." That is one reason, he explained, that he founded the company 29 years ago.
Kessler spoke about the FTC challenge after being contacted for comment by Reuters Health. He said that the company had not received the commission's complaint until days after the FTC announced the charges to the press and that its communication with the company "has just been token."
Vowing to fight to the finish, Kessler questioned the FTC's motives. "If the agenda isn't to protect Ritalin and Ciba-Geigy and the drug industry, what is it?" he asked.
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