Tag Archives: Scams

Australian Vaccination Network: Selling what’s available for free

Posted in Anti-Vaccination Lobby, Health, Legal, Scam by

If you’ve ever wandered about the Australian Vaccination Network‘s online shop you’ll notice quite a lot of themes.

Anti-vaccination, natural health, the evils of medicine, the bounty of mother earth, cancer cures, vitamin miracle stories, courageous people, tortured children, the horror of government malignancy and a general cornucopia of articles, DVD’s and books usually with one central theme. Conspiracies.

Yet before you go “shopping” and grab a few of those oh-so-cheap “downloadable articles”, or “25% discounted Special Offers!!” DVD’s and books, please be aware you’re buying what is almost certainly available for free, or at most substantially less. As Reasonable Hank pointed out some days back with delightful screen-shotted pwnage on his blog, Dorey scams even those who ask a question, or seek advice. You see, the error filled yet freely available article at whale.to, Tetanus Toxoid Vaccination by Chris Gaublomme is being sold by Meryl Dorey. It gets worse in that she consciously directed a Facebook commenter to her shop rather than to the free site which contains exactly the same information.

I was shocked! Could it be that family friendly and child loving Meryl Dorey might seek to profit from parents’ curiosity? The motherly Dorey who only wants the best for children and their parents? Apparently. With a little digging I found exactly the same information on the International Medical Council on Vaccination‘s certifiably loony site. You may remember them from hosting Meryl’s “Death threats, health fascism and suppression of vaccine truth in Australia” webinar. The question had to be asked then. How much else was she ripping off? Random selection of a few items proved most telling.

The article The MMR vaccine is not holy water – copyrighted to Sherri Tenpenny – is available free on many other sites. HPV Vaccine Mysteries selling on the AVN site, is available in PDF format – one may even say as a “downloadable article” – for free right here. For double the price of HPV Vaccine Mysteries you can download “reprints” from an already published AVN magazine of Debating Vaccination; the mind boggling pseudoscience from failed physicist and PhD enabler of Judy Wilyman, Dr. Brian Martin. Or for free you can download the entire article with identical cover, colours and cockypop right here.

In fact, where might Meryl Dorey be sourcing her “downloadable articles” from? Do you really need to clutter your computer with articles that are available online – sometimes on several websites? More so, do you want to be giving banking details to an organisation with a documented history of financial deception as confirmed by NSW Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing? Who acted to revoke their fundraising licence?

This deceptive conduct has already manifested in 23 (known) breaches of The Charitable Fundraising Act 1991. Breaches carried out boldly and that do not include the hanky panky of selling freely available material. To be sure some articles are $2:50 or even $1:50. All the better to splurge. Yet other items are “discounted” to $25:00 when they exist elsewhere for far less, or in the case of most books almost half AVN’s price.

But of course this is nothing new. In September last year Kate Bensen wrote in the SMH Copyright breaches land antivaccination group in trouble:

An anti-vaccination group is under fire for allegedly breaching copyright laws by selling newspaper and medical journal articles online without permission from the authors.

The Australian Vaccination Network, which was the subject of a public warning issued by the Health Care Complaints Commission last month, withdrew 11 information packs from its website yesterday after complaints from authors. The packs, which were selling for up to $128, included home-made books filled with articles photocopied from journals around the world, information on drugs taken from MIMS, the medical guide used by doctors and nurses, and copies of brochures inserted in medication boxes by pharmaceutical companies. [….]

The president of the network, Meryl Dorey, said she was unaware she had breached copyright but accepted there had been problems with her licence.

”We’ve made mistakes but they’ve been honest mistakes. They’ve been out of ignorance rather than fraudulence,” she said.

One author stressed that apart from never hearing of the AVN, her material was out of date. Also, under copyright law penalties can reflect if material is used in a way that makes readers think less of the author. In regard to the former, selling outdated material is just scamming members again. As for the latter there’s ample scope for that.

Keeping the deception theme alive, in a recent article (November 2nd) in The West Australian Meryl Dorey:

… denied claims the group was involved with religious organisations that have an anti-drugs stance.

Which is rather fortuitous given our present little jaunt about her online shop dear reader. One of the “25% discounted” DVD’s is Scientology’s Citizen Commission on Human Rights, Making a killing: the untold story of psychotropic drugging. You can pad Meryl’s pocket with $25:00 to have and to hold your very own copy… if it arrives. Or watch it free here as a Google Video. Dorey is also selling in her “downloadable articles” scam, the CCHR’s Labelling and drugging kids for profit, which is identical to material on the Scientology/CCHR’s USA sites that’s also available with videos. Dorey has a long history of promoting the CCHR and other material and books she sells are religiously themed and anti-conventional medicine.

So a.) Meryl Dorey is indeed involved with “religious organisations that have an anti-drugs stance”, b.) is profiting from selling their otherwise freely available material and c.) continues to promote these views. Wow. Caught with lies and fraudulence again. Why am I not surprised?

Speaking of books, The Virus and the Vaccine is $35:00 AU at the AVN shop or under $13:00 US on Amazon. Choosing Not to Immunise Our Children is $40:00 AU at the AVN or $25:00 US at Inkview.com. Fear Of The Invisible by Janine Roberts is a whopping $42:00 AU at the AVN. On the promotional site it’s $20:00 US. At Amazon it’s $18:61 US. Drug Muggers: Which medications are robbing your body of essential nutrients… is $35:00 AU at the AVN or $14:20 US at Amazon. Child Health Guide – $33:00 AU vs $16:86 AU at the Aussie online store, Fishpond. The Age of Autism… by Olmsted and Blaxill. $35:00 AU vs $18:65 US at Amazon. The Vaccine Guide – 10 years old – is $44:00 AU vs $13.01 US at Amazon.

On and on it goes. With absolutely no guarantee your product is in stock (there is no notice) nor if it will arrive as per the great Living Wisdom swindle. Which, amazingly also contained free articles within that subscribers had already paid for. Even Peter Dingle’s, David Icke admiration winning The Great Cholesterol Deception is $5 dearer than at Aussie online retailer Fishpond who guarantee rapid delivery. Of course the rubbish on offer ranges from nature-obsessive to offensive (Hep B vaccine – good for new born prostitutes and drug addicts but who else?) to completely fictitious such as homeoprophylaxis or “vaccine guides” written by homeopaths, to New World Order themes.

The best way to uncover the pay-for “downloadable articles” scam is to bring up the offending item page. Highlight only the title and search for that. So why pay for Judy Wilyman’s A new strain of swine influenza… when the same is available here for nicks? Or Dr. Eisenstein’s vitamin D recommendations for the same disease, when it also available at the Center for healthy living?

Who else would publish that gross Greg Damato title Hep B vaccine – good for new born prostitutes and drug addicts… that Meryl is selling her members? Only our old friend Mike Adams – who happens to have it for free. Speaking of Mike I wonder if our Health Danger knows that his MacGyver inspired article How to build a pharmaceutical factory in your back yard and grow your medicine for free is being sold by Meryl word for word. Ecstatic Birth – by Sarah J Buckley is for sale as an article at AVN, or available as exactly the same PDF for free from her own site or even on Mothering.com.

Cancer – How scientific are Orthodox cancer Treatments? – by Walter Last, for sale at AVN or free at whale.to. Perhaps the most face palm-worthy is No Limits by Dianne Trussell. Not only is it for sale but it’s also on the AVN site for free. Many other pieces are seen to be recycled articles from Living Wisdom or Informed Voice written both by Meryl Dorey and other authors. T-Shirts are 40% dearer than similar items from elsewhere.

Back copies of cobwebbed Informed Voice are for sale for goodness sake! Piles of antivaccination brochures, “information packs” and CD’s of old seminars that lie scattered about a moldy old shipping container near a certain ramshackle house. A bit like Steptoe and Son meets The Twilight Zone. My you’d need to be up on your tetanus shots if you’re buying from that shambles.

All up that’s only about 20 items out of many, many more. Material that is freely available or markedly cheaper elsewhere. One is left wondering about the legality of copyright or such price markups with articles and books respectively. Certainly a great deal of material is quite old and even more certainly the bulk is simply pseudoscience dressed up as advice.

The price of some other items, such as Baby Gift packs is simply astonishing. Selling Homeopathic Home Prescriber manuals without warning is exactly why the HCCC sought to protect the public. I for one would be concerned about proper delivery.

It goes without saying. The AVN Shop is a dishonest rip off. A shonkster. A scam. A fugazi. A sting.

Hold onto your money.

[PS: Ample use of “nofollow” was used in linking to such sites of ill repute]

SensaSlim Shonky Shows Up TGA

Posted in Alternative "medicine" scams, Big Placebo, Health, Legal, Scam by

By now you most probably know that SensaSlim won the Choice Shonky for “making snake oil look good”. Or rather, “SensaSlim (and friends)”.

Delightfully the TGA receive an honorary Shonky for their mind blowing apathy and inbred inability to delist the rubbish. Choice report:

The TGA, who deserve an honorary Shonky for their role in this, have had ample reason and opportunity to delist the product, ensuring it can no longer be sold in Australia, but have declined to do so. Even after the TGA’s advertising Complaints Resolution Panel recommended its delisting due to non-compliance with regulations, they have sat tight and done nothing.

Of course the TGA who can, according to the TGA simply do no wrong, rejected this award in the same hilarious manner they reject any responsibility for regular TGA failures. Reported in The Australian, “Unproven slimming spray wins a shonky”:

The TGA revoked Sensaslim’s approval to make such claims, but it has not delisted the product for sale, as suggested by its panel, earning it an “honorary Shonky”. A spokesperson says the Shonky is unwarranted: “The TGA continues to take regulatory action against SensaSlim Solutions to remove it from the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods.”

The spray continues to be sold by several Australian internet pharmacies. This prompted [Ken] Harvey to write to the Pharmacy Board of Australia this week, alerting it to possible “breaches by pharmacists” of legislation prohibiting them from misleading advertising.

Which is exactly why the spray should have already been delisted. People are still being ripped off. More on the failing effectiveness if not relevance of the TGA can be read here at Australian Skeptics.

Just recently on October 27th the Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Catherine King, hinted at regulatory change. Speaking at the Complementary Healthcare Council of Australia’s (CHC) National Conference King agreed that the Auditor General’s report into the TGA this year highlighted concerns. Pharmacy Daily report:

These issues, including poor compliance rates, resulted in recommendations for improving the process of regulation for complementary medicines and the handling of advertising complaints. Specific recommendations listed in the report, including: the timely completion by TGA of key guidance material for complementary medicines; improving the integrity of the self-assessment process for listing complementary therapies whilst limiting the use of inappropriate claims and indications, have been accepted by the TGA and are now in the planning stages for implementation.

King also said planning is now occurring for further report recommendations including making information available to the public on each listed complementary medication; improving the quality of the regulatory framework through the use of risk profiles; and the development of documented procedures for handling advertising complaints including timelines for completing investigations.

An informal working group had also identified that the current system doesn’t “sufficiently encourage compliance”. Indeed. It cannot be understated how appalling the TGA behaved in setting in train some of it’s regulatory powers, such as seeking original and stated evidence from sponsors of ARTG products, only upon discovering the Auditor General was to investigate. Put simply, the TGA can at any time ask for the evidence of any ARTG listed “alternative to medicine” product and act accordingly. Put rather more simply, they don’t.

Despite having several months to discern whether SensaSlim (and a plethora of other scam products) meet requirements Pharmacy News reported last week on the TGA dodging any criticism surrounding Sensaslim. Not happy about it’s honorary Shonky for apathy in the face of urgency, it was noted that:

… a TGA spokesperson insisted it was reviewing whether the product met the requirements for listing on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG). “It is nonsense to say that the TGA has taken no action in relation to SensaSlim,” the spokesperson said. “The TGA continues to take regulatory action against SensaSlim Solutions to remove it from the ARTG.

As for the SensaSlim Scam itself, well the European and American markets – always the primary target – are now copping it. The same flashy websites once active in Australia, with exactly the same claims are misleading consumers on those continents. The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency cannot act to have the misleading advertising removed unless:

  • The site is hosted in the UK
  • The profits are banked in the UK
  • The product is distributed from the UK
  • And is a medicinal product

Profits from sales of SensaSlim go via PayPal into the bank account of Peter Foster’s QLD girlfriend Liana Emberg. Liana is understandably keeping quiet. Emberg was one of seven SensaSlim scam scally wags who had their bank accounts frozen by the ACCC.

Somehow I doubt poor Liana is losing out.

Check out all 2011 Shonky Awards here (SensaSlim 2:40)

Dr Death – Hellfried Sartori’s Cancer cure scam

Posted in Alternative "medicine" scams, Health, Legal, Scam by

Australia’s 60 Minutes program recently screened an episode on Dr. Hellfried Sartori’s lethal “alternative” cancer “treatment and cure”.

In the time honoured tradition of cancer cure scams, Sartori claims to be able to cure 98% of cancers – including “highly advanced metastatic cancer” – and has done so for “ten thousand” patients who are spreading the word “in the underground”, he says.

“The Underground?”, you may ask. His “miracle cure” you see, would “put pharmaceutical companies out of business” and was “unauthorised”, relayed family members who were scammed by “cutting edge” mimicry. It was a poisonous cocktail.

Featured in this program are members of families who lost loved ones in appalling circumstances in Perth. This led to a Coronial Inquest in November 2010. The inquest heard of 25 Aussies, 24 (including a six year old Sydney girl) of whom are dead. The other person hasn’t been found.

Sartori (sometimes bobbing up as Abdul-Haqq Sartori) has been jailed twice in the US. Although convicted over various frauds, including an AIDS cure scam whilst practising medicine without a licence in Thailand, he is unrepentant. In Perth, according to Fairfax:

Celia Kemp suggested to Mr Sartori that he could only see success and not failure, that his clinical skills were deficient, that he had lied and exaggerated about his treatment as part of luring sick people into paying him for dubious treatments, and that his success rate for curing cancer was zero.

Mr Sartori replied that 50 per cent of the cure for cancer was positive thinking by the patient. He conceded he had exaggerated about the efficacy of his treatments, insisted he could cure cancer and admitted lying to Australian authorities. ”If any treatment has proved benefits, it is this treatment,” he told the court. ”And I have not violated my Hippocratic oath.”

He has a long history of “vitamin” and “ozone” cancer cures, charging up to $40,000 in Australia. He is deregistered in a number of U.S. states. The 60 Minutes program includes a short interview with Dr. Alexandra Boyd. His Australian caper occurred whilst he was in custody in Thailand. Rather than a clinic, a house owned by Dr. Boyd was used. Unregistered nurses administered Sartoris useless, and lethal cocktail. During the inquest in 2010 Dr. Boyd went missing, until found to have voluntarily admitted herself to a psychiatric clinic. According to The Australian:

She was forced to testify before Western Australia’s Coroner’s Court via telephone link from a mental health clinic in Fremantle after being deemed fit to give evidence by her psychiatrist. [….] The five patients received a mixture of minerals, industrial solvents and paint stripper while being treated in Dr Boyd’s home in 2005. They later died, some after vomiting green fluid and suffering chronic diarrhoea.

So how is such rubbish sold? How are people convinced to use such dangerous compounds? Sartori’s web site still pushes his “alternative cancer treatment” scam. Other alternative cancer care sites promote Sartori, Liquid Cesium Chloride and Dimethyl Sulfoxide. DSMO (“the magic bullet for cancer”) is used in other dubious treatments including arthritis creams. Whilst it has genuine medicinal uses due to it’s ability to penetrate skin and cell membranes without damage, it is favoured by alternative “health” scams.

Abusing the work of others on conditions which favour cancer growth, Sartori’s suspect “research” of exactly the same concept – that cancer cells survive longer in acidic or anaerobic environments – is quoted. Thus, Cesium Chloride, “one of the most alkaline elements” will kill off the cancer cell by raising pH and boosting O2. Intravenous DSMO aids in getting the CsCl into the cell.

His ozone theory is bizarre. Citing a number of populations that live at high altitude and experience longevity, Sartori reasons this is due to greater concentrations of ozone. The higher one goes the more UV action on oxygen, hence greater ozone concentration. Since “time immemorial” lowland women could not fall pregnant in the highlands, unless acclimatised. Assuming this is due to ozone, Sartori further postulates if a fetus will not grow then surely cancer will not grow. “… as ozone temporarily stops the growth of the embryo, it too stops the growth of a quantity of quick growing cancer.”

B17 or laetrile is another component. The Hunzas of Northern Pakistan are one of the high altitude communities with longevity quoted by Sartori. Laetrile is found in the seeds of apricots – a favoured Hunza food. Apricots have been palmed off as a path to longevity for decades due to this association, but vitamin scams take it one further and push the laetrile angle. Along with zinc, selenium and ascorbic acid Sartori adds B17 to his IV cancer cure.

And Viola! There you have your $40,000 lethal intravenous mix.

Blackmores, Pharmacy Guild saving face

Posted in Alternative "medicine" scams, Big Placebo, Health by

Last we visited the Blackmores, Guild Alliance there were serious doubts about evidence from Blackmores or understanding from the Guild.

Not much has changed on admitting fault, even with the removal of the Gold Cross endorsement. Which, by the way, was the fault of “ill informed and inflammatory” media reporting leading us goofy consumers to exhibit a “strong level of public concern”. I wonder where the Guild gets off trying this one on. There’s something missing from this sudden awakening in which “the Guild has listened to these concerns and accepts – mutually with Blackmores… to withdraw the endorsement arrangement”.

For example the AMA, according to president Steve Hambleton, considered the deal “outrageous” and that, “There’s no place for commercial interference in the clinical decision making of the pharmacist”. This was and is reflected in GP’s responses, including some writing notes with scripts to not include the “companion range”. Professor Paul Glasziou, director of Bond University’s centre for research in evidence-based practice had, on ABC, called Blackmores’ bluff on supporting evidence.

Chemist Warehouse had publically and loudly protested, promising to not participate in the deal. “Our pharmacists recommendations are not for sale” and “Professionals Practicing Professionally” stated their defiant flyer. Ouch!

Many individual pharmacists were, to put it mildly, infuriated and appalled at the Guild’s total stuff up which effected the integrity of all pharmacists.

Stuart Baker, a pharmacist from Western Victoria quit the Guild in protest. In view of the decision to drop the Gold Cross endorsement he still won’t be returning. Damage done there it seems. In light of the Guild’s inability to accept responsibility for such poor decision making the damage could be both more widespread and persistent.

Jane McCredie recently wrote in MJA Insight:

PHARMACISTS have long felt like the poor relations in the broader family of health professionals when it comes to status and respect, if not monetary reward.

In recent years, their representative bodies have lobbied for expanded prescribing rights, for recognition of their role as front-line “clinicians” and against allowing pharmacies in supermarkets for fear this would undermine the quality of health care provided.

It’s going to be a lot harder to make those arguments convincingly in the wake of the spectacularly ill advised deal between the Pharmacy Guild and Blackmores that created such a media furore last week.

October 5th saw the Pharmacist Coalition call on the Guild to dump the scheme. AusPharm News reported in part:

The Pharmacist Coalition for Health Reform (PCHR) has called on the Pharmacy Guild of Australia to axe their deal with Blackmores, following the Guild’s admission that the computer prompts to upsell dietary supplements were a pilot only and would be reviewed.

PCHR spokesperson and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia (APESMA), Chris Walton, said that pharmacists had rejected the deal and it was now time for the Pharmacy Guild to scrap the pilot. “A Pharmacist Coalition poll of over 460 people has shown that 94 per cent of community members, including pharmacists and pharmacists-in-training, disagree with the Blackmores’ deal and believe ‘it undermines the professionalism of pharmacists’.

“This has been further supported by The Age online poll which revealed that of over 2,000 voters, 94 per cent do not approve of the ‘Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s deal with Blackmores to recommend Blackmore’s supplements’. [….] PCHR spokesperson and Chief Executive Officer of The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA), Yvonne Allinson said The Pharmacy Guild has lost credibility and a failure to scrap the pilot would damage their reputation further.

Gold Cross is a fully owned subsidiary of the Guild. Now that the Gold Cross endorsement has been cancelled their logo, if you like, won’t appear on Blackmores companion range. Nor will the pilot project of software prompts at point of sale go ahead. The decision was “made in conjunction with Blackmores”.

The mutual decision has been taken in view of the strong level of public concern about the proposal, based on some media reporting of the endorsement which was ill-informed and inflammatory.

The last thing the Guild would ever want to do is deplete the credibility of community pharmacists, or damage the trust in which they are held by Australians. That trust and confidence is of paramount importance to the Guild and to our Members. The Gold Cross endorsement arrangement with Blackmores was entered in good faith, with absolutely no intention of undermining the professionalism and integrity of participating pharmacists. [….]

Additionally, an optional prompt containing clinical information for the patient to consider in relation to one product of the Companions range was to be available through the dispensary IT programs, on a pilot basis. The software pilot was not intended to commence until at least November, and will now not proceed.

Chris Walton CEO of APESMA Pharmacist division said in response:

This is a pathetic back down by an out of touch organization. The Guild has been dragged kicking and screaming to the decision and still will not take responsibility. They describe their decision to enter the deal as one made in good faith. Good faith must now be code for a bag of coin.

The profession should never forget that the Guild was willing to trade on the good reputation of pharmacists for commercial gain. While the same people are in charge why would we ever trust them again. Any pretence that they represent the pharmacy profession is over.

Still insisting that the “need for these natural health supplements for some consumers is underpinned by a body of scientific evidence”, Blackmores released a statement also with soothing noises about having listened. But they go one further and point out the “considerable confusion” in waking up to their scam. Hmmm. Perhaps they have a supplement for that? Either way, also from October 5th:

We have listened to the feedback on the Companions range and it is apparent that there is considerable confusion regarding the positioning of this range which we believe is detracting from the potential underlying benefit of these products to consumers.

As a result, and following discussions with Gold Cross, Blackmores will remove the Gold Cross endorsement from the four products, we will not feature these products on the proposed IT dispensary software and we will update the product names to reflect the key ingredients, under the Companions brand.

Blackmores have published research on their professional page for “health professionals” which is well summarised here. I suspect in response to the NPS review of evidence to sustain (cough) claims made in defence of the “companion range”. Christine Holgate opens her heart here about “misconstrued” information and accurate representation of “integrity”. Basically, it’s all good and they’re doing Aussies a favour. No, really.

All up, it’s rather shameful. The Guild haven’t in effect admitted being at fault. At most they seem to grudgingly admit to a type of PR blunder. Blackmores is sticking to it’s guns pleading misunderstanding on the part of the public and a raft of health professionals. Marcus Blackmore bemoaned that a full scale assault on complementary medicines had grown out of the same misunderstanding. ABC have a comprehensive write up with audio and video.

Jane McCredie finished her MJA Insight article in style:

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia is due to release a new code of ethics for its members — along with a vision for the profession’s future — at its annual conference later this week. It would be nice to think that code might require pharmacists to disclose the level of evidence for any non-prescription medication they sell — hardly an unreasonable demand of people who want to be recognised as clinicians.

I’m imagining the conversations now if this code is implemented. Pharmacists selling homoeopathic remedies will be required to tell each and every customer: “There’s not a skerrick of evidence this works, but if you want to throw your money away…”

Therein lies the very source of the problem. Blackmores’ deal stood out because it officiated upselling and would have included entirely unwarranted prompts. Both the Guild and Blackmores knew it to be a grab for money. So did everybody else. Yet pharmacists do recommend and sell junk to consumers. Assistants do little if anything to dissuade from spontaneous buying.

Doctors will testify to patients at times admitting to taking large amounts of useless supplements. It’s documented that patients are reticent to admit to doctors they use alternative products. In the main doctors are missing out on vital information they need to properly treat their patients.

The only durable solution is for the TGA to move forward with sharp teeth and legislation to call CAM what it really, in the main is.

Unproven and unnecessary.

NPS urges independent advice as Blackmores deal may contravene legislation

Posted in Alternative "medicine" scams, Big Placebo, Health, Scam by

Already the myth that the AMA is critical of Blackmores scam to push woo woo at point of sale because of profit jealousy has emerged.

Whilst there are justified criticisms of medical and pharmaceutical industry cooperation, it is frequently blown up to conspiratorial levels. Or misunderstood as being a negative influence on doctors in total. There’s no evidence doctors are immune to incentives – none of us are – but regulations and guidelines exist for a reason. Also, the strongest push to place ethics before the benefits of pharmacy marketing comes from doctors themselves.

Quite frankly though, it also has zip to do with this new problem lapping around the ankles of patients visiting pharmacies to have scripts filled. Drugs work. In the vast majority of cases the consumer can choose a cheaper brand at point of purchase. Alternative products may loosely be said to not so much work, as to carry almost no risk. And this lack of risk, if you pause and think, by definition in the vast majority of cases brings a lack of efficacy. That is, after all, the basis by which they make it onto shelves. That is what differentiates a listed product from a regulated product.

You may have noticed there’s no black market in echinacea. “Naturopath shopping” due to a high tolerance of spirulina or glucosamine isn’t a problem. Clandestine labs aren’t employing criminals to smurf homeopathic tablets so the latest ATS can continue to be supplied. Pharmacies aren’t ram raided in the dead of night so the probiotic fridge or magnesium supplements can be carried off. No cries in emergency departments of “Quick nurse… two teaspoons of Ethical Nutrients fish oil… No – make that Cod Liver Oil. And no fruity flavour Godammit!”.

Alternative medicines have been shown to not work reliably over and again. Those with demonstrable effect suffer from unpredictable results, varying concentration and drug interaction. If Blackmores’ hanky panky does anything well, it’s interferring with the expected effect of real medication. Being not customised per patient needs, it’s impossible to claim one size fits all immediately after claiming it is for something so difficult to quantify as “nutritional deficiency”. A deficiency that may or may not exist at all and if so, demands individual follow up and perhaps a pathology test.

Yet side stepping this final step in patient specificity is exactly what Blackmores seeks to do in mass managing highly specific, and very rare, potential eventualities.

Which brings us back to the grandiose sell being pushed in Blackmores promotion. Claims made in advertising are frequently not backed by evidence. 80 of 82 complaints pertaining to the relevant Advertising Code this year were upheld by the TGA. The two failed complaints were specific to competing companies.

Yet presently there’s no way to follow through and prosecute for non compliance with TGA demands to address false advertising claims. Readers may remember crook and homeopath Fran Sheffield smirking at TGA demands to publish a retraction of outrageous claims on her website. It is simply not cost effective to prosecute, according to the TGA. Indeed it is so cost ineffective, it is not judged to be in the public interest. Pages 130-131 of The Auditor Generals Report into the TGA and Complimentary Medicines, includes;

The TGA’s Advertising Unit is not aware of having successfully used the full range of sanctions, such as seeking a prosecution for breaches:

Due to the very low financial penalties currently available (a maximum of $6600 for individuals and $33 000 for corporations) for advertising offences in the Act and other investigative priorities for the TGA, it is not cost‐effective for the TGA to initiate a formal investigation of an advertising breach with a view to preparing a brief of evidence for consideration of prosecution by the Director of Prosecutions …

It has never been cost‐ effective for the TGA to initiate a formal investigation of an advertising breach with a view to preparing a brief of evidence.

The size of penalties attached to criminal offences may also mean that it is seen as not in the public interest to proceed. This view is consistent with legal advice provided to the Advertising Unit about specific breaches.

The TGA has also observed that “prosecution is currently the only available option where administrative requests fail to achieve compliance”. There have never been any cases that have been referred for prosecution action and accepted.

In 2010 a DoHA review found 90% of products reviewed were found to be non-compliant with regulatory requirements. The infamous 31 products selected at random yielded 68 breaches;

20 medicines had labelling issues such as non‐compliance with labelling requirements and/or breaches which may mislead consumers.
12 included incomplete and/or inappropriate information on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG).
22 were found to have manufacturing and/or quality issues.
14 did not have adequate evidence to substantiate claims made about the medicines.

It is into this highly unsatisfactory environment the Blackmores Beast is born. Ken Harvey has written an excellent summary in addition to his Fairfax piece noted in the last post. Pharmacies to push supplements as fries and Coke to prescriptions is hosted on The Conversation.

In a change from Pharmacy Guild president Kos Sciavos being “personally thrilled” to announce the deal, it now also emerges;

The National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Grant Kardachi, is meeting Blackmores this week and will seek an apology for the damaging and denigrating comments made about the profession of pharmacy.

Mr Kardachi said the “coke and fries‟ comment by Blackmores‟ Chief Executive was more than unfortunate and ill-considered.

One can only await further developments with interest.

In other news…

 The NPS have come out against the deal:

Whilst contravention of legislation has also been raised: