Personal Injury Law

Weight-Loss Products Safety Alert Expanded by FDA

By Jessica Smagacz

U.S. News reported this past Friday that FDA announced an expanded nationwide alert about tainted weight-loss products containing undeclared, active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Herbal Xenicol, Slimbionic and Xsvelten were added to the alert. The undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients that were added to the warning include fenproporex, fluoxetine, furosemide and cetilistat.

Last year, FDA warned customers not to purchase or consume 28 different products that were marketed for weight loss. Now the warning includes 72 products and the agency will continue to update the list if needed.

Dr. Janet Woodcock, the director of FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research said, 'These tainted weight-loss products pose a great risk to public health because they contain undeclared ingredients and, in some cases, contain prescription drugs in amounts that greatly exceed maximum recommended dosages. Consumers have no way of knowing that these products contain dangerous drugs that could cause serious consequences to their health.'

These products are promoted and sold on various websites and some are even sold in some retail stores and beauty salons. They are illegal and have not been approved by FDA.

The active pharmaceutical ingredients include:

• fenproporex -- a controlled substance not approved for sale in the United States
• fluoxetine -- an antidepressant available by prescription only
• bumetanide -- a potent diuretic available by prescription only
• furosemide -- a potent diuretic available by prescription only
• rimonabant -- a drug not approved for sale in the United States
• cetilistat -- an experimental obesity drug not approved for sale in the United States
• phenytoin -- an anti-seizure medication available by prescription only
• phenolphthalein -- a solution used in chemical experiments and a suspected cancer-causing agent that is not approved for sale in the United States

You can go here for a complete list of the tainted weight-loss products.

Full post as published by Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyer on March 21, 2009 (boomark / email).