COLD-FX MISLED USERS, SUIT ALLEGES
Best-selling cold and flu remedy ‘lied’: plaintiff
The makers of Canada’s most successful natural-health product are battling a class action lawsuit alleging they fraudulently misled customers into thinking Cold-FX could quickly relieve cold symptoms — contrary to their own studies.
The B.C. case is unusual among health-product class actions, charging not that the pills caused physical harm but that their benefits were misrepresented to the public.
Previously confidential sales figures for Cold-FX, submitted as part of the case, indicate that more than $117 million worth of the ginseng-based product were sold in Canada as recently as 2011.
Developed by an Albertabased team, and marketed through endorsements by Don Cherry and other Canadian sports celebrities, the product has grown to be the best-selling cold and flu remedy in Canada.
But much of those sales were built on false claims that the pills could bring “immediate relief ” for cold and flu symptoms, alleges the lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court.
“They told people that the product does something that it doesn’t, and that’s a lie,” said John Green, the Vancouver lawyer spearheading the case. “It’s even more problematic where you have a product that is being sold and you’re basing it on research.”
Don Harrison, the Vancouver Island retiree acting as the suit’s “representative plaintiff,” said he bought a bottle of ColdFX at a local big-box store in 2011, convinced by the stated promise of fast relief from his respiratory bug. “I took it according to directions and nothing happened, nothing happened,” the Ladysmith, B.C., resident said Monday. “I don’t think there’s any doubt whatsoever that they were pulling the wool over our eyes.”
The drawn-out case is scheduled for another five days of hearings this spring on whether it should be “certified” — the designation allowing a class action to head toward trial or settlement. In the meantime, a judge is also considering a request by the defendants to have the lawsuit tossed out.
A lawyer for Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc. , which bought Cold-FX maker Afexa Life Sciences in 2011, said Monday he did not have authority to comment on the case.
The company no longer seems to make claims about “immediate relief of cold and flu symptoms.” And an affidavit from employee Tara McCrory states that the Cold-FX packages themselves never contained that phrase.
The affidavit also cites the product’s support on social media, including 24,000 likes of the Cold-FX Facebook page and 26,000 mentions on Twitter. Those include one in 2012 that said “Cold-FX is like some miracle pill,” and another suggesting it “knocked my cold away.”
The court document also points to consumer research suggesting most users take Cold-FX when cold and flu symptoms first appear.
The best evidence from an inconsistent series of clinical trials, however, offers no evidence that it would help in those circumstances, says the plaintiffs’ expert witness. The studies indicate at most that Cold-FX might help slightly reduce the number or sever- ity of viruses in users who take the product daily for two to six months, says an affidavit from Adil Virani, a University of British Columbia pharmaceutical sciences professor.
Not only is there no evidence that it provides fast relief if taken when symptoms appear, but none of the human studies were even designed to measure that kind of benefit, said Mr. Virani, head of pharmacy services for four B.C. health authorities.
Marketing of Cold-FX seems less expansive today, the product’s website now saying only that “by boosting your immune system, Cold-FX helps reduce the frequency, severity and duration of cold and flu symptoms.”
Still, the home page fails to indicate that, according to the research, the tablets must be taken regularly for months to get those benefits.
Mr. Green said the case underscores how naturalhealth products often make exaggerated claims and face few repercussions from regulators preoccupied with pharmaceutical drugs.
The affidavit by Ms. McCrory contains Cold-FX sales figures for British Columbia, indicating they represent about 14% of the national numbers. For 2011, $16.5 million of the substance was sold in the province, though figures for the first several months of 2012 — around the time CBC-TV ran a documentary questioning the company’s claims — revenue was down about 30%, the document indicated.
Marketing of Cold-FX seems less expansive today