FDA moves against swine flu fraud

[May 05, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration has found at least 20 Web sites that may be fraudulently marketing products with claims that they guard against or cure swine flu, an agency official said Monday.

The FDA publicly rebuked one such site Monday -- http://rebuildermedical.com/ -- for offering a $199 "SilverCure Swine Flu Protection Pack" that includes shampoo, lotion, conditioner and soap that supposedly deposit traces of silver.

"Everything you need to protect yourself and family," the Web site says. But the FDA says no silver-based products have been approved for swine flu treatment or prevention, so it's illegal to claim such benefits.

Alyson Saben, who heads a new FDA swine flu consumer fraud team, told The Associated Press in an interview that ReBuilderMedical Technologies Inc. will have 48 hours to take corrective action or face criminal or regulatory action from the FDA.

A phone message and e-mail to the company were not immediately returned.

Officials on the new swine fraud team working over the weekend found at least 20 other sites peddling products for swine flu accompanied by potentially fraudulent claims, Saben said.

She declined to identify the other sites until the agency investigates their claims and makes a decision about their accuracy. But she said they were things like antiviral medications being sold without a doctor's prescription, dietary supplements with exaggerated claims, and flu diagnostic and protection kits.

"Unfortunately we see that these deceptive products are being offered, and by purveyors of products that take advantage of the public's concerns about the virus," Saben said. "FDA will consider whatever means are necessary and available to us to immediately stop the marketing of unapproved, uncleared or unauthorized products."

The FDA is asking members of the public to notify the agency when they encounter potentially fraudulent products. Tips can be submitted at: http://www.fda.gov/oci/flucontact.html.

Forms of silver like ionic silver or colloidal silver -- none of them approved for swine flu -- are nonetheless easy to find online accompanied by claims that they fight or prevent the new flu. A Web site called http://www.swineflugone.com/ is selling a 2-ounce spritzer bottle with a concoction of ionic silver, echinecea, eucalyptus and spearmint and claiming it will "Stop Swine Flu in Its Tracks."

Another site, http://www.flu-watch.org/, claims to disclose "What the CDC won't tell you that just may save your life." Colloidal silver is offered as a lifesaving cure.

Other sites are selling the antiviral Tamiflu apparently without requiring a doctors' prescriptions, or expensive kits of surgical masks, gloves, and anti-bacterial wipes and gels.

Surgical masks and gloves are medical devices and must have FDA approval. But even if the items themselves being sold are FDA-approved, the claims being made about them may not be accurate, Saben said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend widespread use of face masks, saying only that they may be useful -- along with other measures -- for people who may be in close contact with people may have flu. Surgical gloves are only recommended for people like first responders having direct contact with ill people.

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On the Net:

FDA swine flu fraud page

[Associated Press; By ERICA WERNER]

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