Duff Wilson of the New York Times reports:
The German drug giant Bayer on Tuesday settled complaints by three states that it had deceptively used the fear of prostate cancer to sell One A Day vitamins without proof the pills could prevent prostate cancer.
The settlement, announced by the states and the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest, which had also sued, requires Bayer to support all such claims with “competent and reliable scientific evidence.”
Packages of One A Day Men’s Health Formula had said: “Did you know that prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men and that emerging research suggests Selenium may reduce the risk of prostate cancer?”
…
But a federally financed selenium study did not make any such finding. It was halted in 2008 after concluding Selenium, in fact, did not prevent prostate cancer in a group of relatively healthy men. The study also showed selenium may increase the risk of diabetes.
…
“The problem is that Congress has removed supplements from F.D.A. oversight,” Mr. Gardner said in an interview Wednesday. “The result is that the supplement industry is running amok making all sorts of completely baseless claims – which are now pretty much being joined by the food companies which are making the same types of nonsense claims about preventing disease.”
On his Pharmalot blog, Ed Silverman pointed out:
“(Illinois’ Attorney General) decried Bayer for trying to increase One A Day sales by “deceptively leveraging fear of prostate cancer and relied on a promotional campaign called “Strike Out Prostate Cancer” that enlisted Major League Baseball as a promotional partner. That effort included billboards, print and broadcast ads, and testimonials from baseball players.”
Somebody struck out alright.
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
The tale of two “negative” studies. Or, how spin is applied to make research findings look more impressive. A must read. https://johnmandrola.substack.com/p/the-tale-of-two-negative-studies
The @nytimes chose to interview one of the editors of the @AnnalsofIM (publisher of this paper) who "gushed with extraordinary glee: It’s huge! There are very few things that reduce your mortality by 30%."
Turns out coffee is not one of those few things despite all that glee. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1533202075928215558
Comments
Please note, comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts.
Comments are closed.
Our Comments Policy
But before leaving a comment, please review these notes about our policy.
You are responsible for any comments you leave on this site.
This site is primarily a forum for discussion about the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages (advertising, marketing, public relations, medical journals, etc.) It is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science.
We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified claims, product pitches, profanity or any from anyone who does not list a full name and a functioning email address. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. We don”t give medical advice so we won”t respond to questions asking for it.
We don”t have sufficient staffing to contact each commenter who left such a message. If you have a question about why your comment was edited or removed, you can email us at feedback@healthnewsreview.org.
There has been a recent burst of attention to troubles with many comments left on science and science news/communication websites. Read “Online science comments: trolls, trash and treasure.”
The authors of the Retraction Watch comments policy urge commenters:
We”re also concerned about anonymous comments. We ask that all commenters leave their full name and provide an actual email address in case we feel we need to contact them. We may delete any comment left by someone who does not leave their name and a legitimate email address.
And, as noted, product pitches of any sort – pushing treatments, tests, products, procedures, physicians, medical centers, books, websites – are likely to be deleted. We don”t accept advertising on this site and are not going to give it away free.
The ability to leave comments expires after a certain period of time. So you may find that you’re unable to leave a comment on an article that is more than a few months old.
You might also like