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Multivitamins Could Result In False Claims Lawsuits

  One A Day Multivitamins False Claims Lawsuits. Bayer Healthcare has been accused of making outrageous and false claims about some of its One A Day vitamin products and prostate cancer. Specifically, Bayer claims that selenium in its One A Day Men’s 50+ Advantage and One A Day Men’s Health Formula multivitamins may prevent prostate […]

One A Day Multivitamins

 

One A Day Multivitamins False Claims Lawsuits. Bayer Healthcare has been accused of making outrageous and false claims about some of its One A Day vitamin products and prostate cancer. Specifically, Bayer claims that selenium in its One A Day Men’s 50+ Advantage and One A Day Men’s Health Formula multivitamins may prevent prostate cancer. This is in direct contradiction to the findings of a major study of selenium and prostate cancer. Our lawyers are currently offering free lawsuit consultations to anyone who purchased One A Day Men’s 50+ Advantage and One A Day Men’s Health Formula vitamins based on Bayer’s prostate cancer claims.

Prostate cancer is a big health concern for many men. Bayer has been accused of shamelessly exploiting these prostate cancer fears in its marketing campaign for One A Day Men’s 50+ Advantage and One A Day Men Health Formula vitamins. Because of Bayer’s marketing strategy, millions of men likely spent significant amounts of money on One A Day Men’s 50+ Advantage and One A Day Men’s Health Formula vitamins. These victims of Bayer’s allegedly false vitamin claims deserve to be compensated for this deception.

If you or someone you love spent your hard-earned money on One A Day Men’s 50+ Advantage and One A Day Men’s Health Formula vitamins because of claims they could prevent prostate cancer, you may be entitled to compensation. Please contact one of our One A Day vitamin prostate cancer claims lawyers right away to protect your legal rights.

Selenium and Prostate Cancer Prevention

Advertisements and labels for One A Day Men’s 50+ Advantage and One A Day Men’s Health Formula multivitamins claim that “emerging research” suggests that selenium may reduce the risk of prostate cancer. For example, a radio ad for the vitamins features a narrator who tells listeners: Did you know that there are more new cases of prostate cancer each year than any other cancer? Now there is something you can do.

According to a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Bayer has run 11 different TV spots and 8 different radio ads since 2009 that make similar prostate cancer claims about One A Day Men’s 50+ Advantage and One A Day Men’s Health Formula vitamins. Unfortunately, Bayer’s claim that emerging research indicates that selenium may prevent prostate cancer is questionable at best. In fact, the largest prostate cancer prevention trial conducted to date has found that selenium is no more effective than a placebo in preventing the disease.

A seven-year, $118-million study funded by the National Institutes of Health found last year that selenium does not prevent prostate cancer in healthy men. The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) involving 35,000 U.S. and Canadian men was halted in October 2008 when researchers determined that selenium was not protecting the men from prostate cancer and may have been causing diabetes in some of them.

In an editorial accompanying publication of the SELECT study results in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Peter Gann of the University of Illinois at Chicago urged that physicians should not recommend selenium or vitamin E or any other antioxidant supplements to their patients for preventing prostate cancer.

The only study to find that selenium might prevent prostate cancer in men was the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer (NPC) trial, which unexpectedly found in 1996 that selenium supplementation seemed to prevent prostate cancer in men with a history of skin cancer. However, two later analyses of the NPC results determined that only a small minority of men may have benefited from selenium supplementation and that selenium almost tripled the risk of developing diabetes. That led to a dramatic warning from the American College of Physicians that long-term selenium supplementation should not be viewed as harmless and a possibly healthy way to prevent illness.

While there is little to support claims that selenium prevents prostate cancer, it is known that exposure to too much of this ingredient can adversely affect health. Of major concern is the heightened risk of diabetes seen in both the SELECT and NPC studies.

It is also known that the short-term, oral exposure to high concentrations of selenium can lead to nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Chronic, oral exposure to high concentrations of selenium compounds can produce a disease called selenosis. The major signs of selenosis are hair loss; nail brittleness; and neurological abnormalities, which include numbness and other odd sensations in the extremities. Animal studies reveal that very high amounts of selenium can affect sperm production.

Center for Science in the Public Interest Complaint

In June 2009, the Center for Science in the Public Interest informed Bayer Healthcare of its intent to sue the company if it continued to claim that the selenium in its One A Day vitamins may reduce men’s risk of prostate cancer. With these indefensible claims, Bayer is thumbing its nose at the Food and Drug Administration, the FTC, and any number of state consumer protection laws, Center litigation director Steve Gardner said in a press release.

The Center’s FTC complaint, filed at the same time, said that because Bayer’s ads had for so long reinforced the false notion that selenium prevents prostate cancer—and because selenium may actually increase the risk of diabetes, the company should be required to run a corrective advertising campaign. The Center also alleged that prostate cancer claims for One A Day supplements for men violated a consent decree the company signed with the FTC in 2007. That year Bayer paid a $3.2 million fine related to weight-loss claims made on behalf of One A Day multivitamin WeightSmart, and agreed not to make unsubstantiated claims in the future.

Need Legal Help Regarding One A Day Multivitamins?

The personal injury attorneys at Parker Waichman LLP offer free, no-obligation case evaluations. For more information, fill out our online contact form or call 1-800-YOURLAWYER (1-800-968-7529).

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