Walmart sham homeopathic products

[Ranb]

Walmart, CVS face trial for putting sham homeopathic products next to real meds
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...-sham-homeopathic-products-next-to-real-meds/

Pharmacy giants CVS and Walmart will have to face trials over claims that placing ineffective homeopathic products alongside legitimate over-the-counter medicines on store shelves deceives consumers into thinking that the pseudoscientific products are akin to evidence-based, Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs.

Progress?

Ranb

 

[arthwollipot]

Maybe. We'll have to see how it works out. See if the "consumer choice" argument gets any traction, because that's really all they've got.

 

[bruto]

Walmart, CVS face trial for putting sham homeopathic products next to real meds
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...-sham-homeopathic-products-next-to-real-meds/



Progress?

Ranb

I hope they lose that trial. Though I'd rather see homeopathy vanish altogether, I could tolerate having a homeopathic section in the store, but I've been in plenty of places where you have to sort through the stuff and read the labels to separate the real stuff from the bogus. Of course we should all do this anyway, but we shouldn't have to check to make sure it's even real.

 

[The Atheist]

Pharmacies in NZ sell that **** right alongside actual medicine.

Money wins.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Walmart, CVS face trial for putting sham homeopathic products next to real meds
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...-sham-homeopathic-products-next-to-real-meds/



Progress?

Ranb

I was just about to post this from The Center for Inquiry:

Score One for the Good Guys—A Major Battle Won in the Continuing War on Homeopathy Fraud

They have been working on this for some time.

CBC TV had a good show on this quackery in 2015.

Homeopathy - Cure or Con?

Little progress in Canada since.

 

[Orphia Nay]

It's a baby step of progress.

It's fine to smack down homeopathy and rail against it, but these products don't have "Homeopathic Medicine" in big letters on them, and Jo Public doesn't know anything about the law of infinitesimals when glancing at labels.

 

[Robin]

Sham homeopathic products? You mean they're not real homeopathic products?

For shame.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

You want to cancel expensive sugar pills, simply because they don't work and probably contain toxics?
Why do you hate capitalism?

 

[Ziggurat]

sham homeopathic products

"sham homeopathic" is redundant.

You want to cancel expensive sugar pills

That would be a shame.
https://www.theonion.com/fda-approves-sale-of-prescription-placebo-1819567087
"It's unfair to the American people to withhold a drug so many of them desperately think they need."

 

[Sherman Bay]

Sham homeopathic products? You mean they're not real homeopathic products?

I am wondering how we can differentiate the REAL homeopathic solutions with the FAKE or COUTERFEIT ones. Maybe Boiron can give us a method?

 

[GlennB]

I am wondering how we can differentiate the REAL homeopathic solutions with the FAKE or COUTERFEIT ones.

That's a pretty good question to put to any fan of homeopathy - "How would you know if you'd been given blank pills? What tests could a lab perform?". Or, at least, it might make them stop and think.

 

[Dave Rogers]

"sham homeopathic" is redundant.

No, it means double homeopathic. Sham homeopathic products are anything up to 100 times as effective as real homeopathic products.

Dave

 

[Trebuchet]

"Zicam" is a sham homeopathic product. It contains significant amounts of real zinc compounds, in 1X and 1C concentrations, but labels itself homeopathic to avoid regulation.
The homeo products that annoy me the most are the ones that are marketed for giving to children.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

"Zicam" is a sham homeopathic product. It contains significant amounts of real zinc compounds, in 1X and 1C concentrations, but labels itself homeopathic to avoid regulation.
The homeo products that annoy me the most are the ones that are marketed for giving to children.

I nearly got into an argument with a daddy who asked the pharmacist in my presence where the homeopathic baby teething relief product was. I said, "you can save your money. It doesn't work you know." He said yes it does, paid his $36 and rushed out. So I did not have change to suggest he just massage his kid's gums.

 

[GlennB]

No, it means double homeopathic. Sham homeopathic products are anything up to 100 times as effective as real homeopathic products.

Dave

There must be a market for invisible homeopathic products.

 

[Armitage72]

"Zicam" is a sham homeopathic product. It contains significant amounts of real zinc compounds, in 1X and 1C concentrations, but labels itself homeopathic to avoid regulation.
The homeo products that annoy me the most are the ones that are marketed for giving to children.

High levels of zinc can be toxic, including loss of the sense of smell and other nerve damage. Just off the top of my head, I can recall two medical shows (House and Royal Pains) in which patients were suffering harmful neurological effects from zinc poisoning caused by overuse of denture adhesive. There have been real world lawsuits over damage caused by denture adhesive.

 

[RecoveringYuppy]

So could Zicam be exposing itself to lawsuits by falsely labeling it's Zinc treatments homeopathic? "Judge, it said homeopathic so I thought I'd really need thousands of doses!"

 

[Mongrel]

High levels of zinc can be toxic, including loss of the sense of smell and other nerve damage. Just off the top of my head, I can recall two medical shows (House and Royal Pains) in which patients were suffering harmful neurological effects from zinc poisoning caused by overuse of denture adhesive. There have been real world lawsuits over damage caused by denture adhesive.

That's what happened and why they changed the formulation. From Wikipedia;

In 2006, Matrixx Initiatives paid $12 million to settle 340 lawsuits from Zicam users who said that the product destroyed their sense of smell[7] (medically termed anosmia), although the company did not admit fault.[15] As of 2009, "hundreds more such suits have since been filed."[7]

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

That's what happened and why they changed the formulation. From Wikipedia;

In 2006, Matrixx Initiatives paid $12 million to settle 340 lawsuits from Zicam users who said that the product destroyed their sense of smell[7] (medically termed anosmia), although the company did not admit fault.[15] As of 2009, "hundreds more such suits have since been filed."[7]

This was not nearly enough to put them out of business unfortunately. After a bit of research (aka Googling) I see the company was sold to Church & Dwight in 2020 and Zircam brand products continue to be sold. Though, for some reason, Zircam does not appear on the Church & Dwight website where all their brands are listed.

The company continues to have problems with the FDA however. See: Zicam Extreme Congestion Relief Recall Issued Due to Contamination


Their court troubles continue. Although they seem to won the most recent round: Zicam Cold Remedy False Advertising Class Action Claims Tossed, For Now

I note the "For Now".

 

[Ryan O'Dine]

You want to cancel expensive sugar pills, simply because they don't work and probably contain toxics?
Why do you hate capitalism?

Thanks, now I've got a craving. I keep trying to mix my own sugar and toxics, but it either comes out too sweet or not toxic enough. I don't know how they do it.