Lawyers eye on suits against Hydroxycut
Saturday May 2, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- A group of lawyers are seeking to sue the manufacturer of Hydroxycut after the FDA issued a warning against use of the popular weight loss supplements.
The FDA issued a statement on May 1 advising consumers to immediately stop using 14 Hydroxycut products, manufactured by Canadian company Iovate Health Sciences Inc., after receiving 23 reports of health problems which include potential liver injury and one death.
Iovate did not agree with the FDA's claim, stating on its website that the company's own studies have shown that its Hydroxycut products are not only effective, but also safe. But as a precaution, it has decided to voluntarily recall the concerned 14 products, urging buyers to return the products to the store where they were purchased for a refund.
The FDA said Hydroxycut Cleanse and Hoodia are not affected by the recall. Many drug stores have pulled off all Hydroxycut products, sources indicate.
Williams Kherkher, a Houston, Texas based attorney rushed out a press release on May 2, announcing that his office is investigating the recall. Kherkher has set up an informational online resource center to help victims of Hydroxycut-related health problems.
Kherkher reports that a 19 year old male from the Southwest US died from liver failure in 2007 after using Hydroxycut, another user received a liver transplant, and still one more has been placed on a liver waitlist.
Saiontz & Kirk, P.A., licensed to practice law in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Virginia, is seeking to file a class-action lawsuit against the manufacturer of Hydroxycut. The law firm advised victims to preserve the product that made them sick rather than return it to the store where it was purchased.
Possible signs of liver injury include jaundice (which includes yellow skin tone), brown urine, light colored stools, nausea and vomiting, excessive fatigue or weakness, itching stomach pain and loss of appetite. Lawyers seek victims who have the problems including liver damage, liver failure, liver transplant, seizures, heart problems, and death among others.
So far, the FDA has identified 23 cases of serious health problems after individuals began taking Hydroxycut. The agency could not establish a causal relation between use of Hydroxycut and liver injury. In some instances, discontinuation of the product resulted in recovery of liver function.
(Written by Jimmy Downs and edited by Will Levine)
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The settlement should be a piece of exercise equipment for them - no cash.
To make a blanket statement that ALL lawyers are seeking out money is just plain stupid. Yes, some may be, but to infer ALL are is just pathetic. How about an analogy: a priest rapes a boy; therefore, all priests are rapist. Nice logic, eh…. It’s what you’re inferring.
It's no different than me buying some bacon and then having a heart attack. Additionally, I read somewhere that nearly 9 million people tried hydroxycut and so far only 23 reported serious side effects. Those are pretty good odds seeing as how tylenol has more serious side effects sometimes.
The hydroxycut they sell now is crap compared to the ephedra one they sold back in 2003. That one really dropped the pounds but really did a number to your heart and blood pressure.
Plain and simple, FDA has no authority to remove hydroxycut since it was never approved by them, Iovate voluntarily took it off, and most likely they will prove that it was negligence on the part of people who got sick saying they probably drank a lot, or didn't drink enough water etc...
According to the CDC, for example, on average 500 people per year die from taking aspirin in America AS INSTRUCTED on the label, and thousands are hospitalized each year for taking aspirin due to liver damage. Yet, aspirin is still sold over-the-counter even to children.
Now, I am not proposing that aspirin should be removed from the shelves any more than should Hydroxycut. My point is that the only reported cases I've seen from the CDC so far regarding Hydroxycut was regarding people who abused the product not following label directions.
We've got to follow the money trail on this story because almost identical products to Hydroxycut are being sold "by prescription" manufactured by the nation's large pharmeceutical companies who's executives sit on the FDA board of directors. Hydroxycut is an effective non-prescription over-the-counter product for those who wish to use it that sells for 1/4 the price of identical prescription products.
I just thought I'd throw my twice-cents worth your way especially since other common over-the-counter products result in far more deaths and damage than Hydroxycut, however they are manufactured by large chemical companies with the cash to bribe Congressmen and the FDA to keep their products on store shelves.
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