Updates on Advertising Law and Privacy Law Trends, Issues, and Developments
Updates on Advertising Law and Privacy Law Trends, Issues, and Developments
Welcome to our selected regulatory and litigation highlights impacting the food and beverage industry in March 2021. The food court saw its own brand of March Madness with disputes over food delivery fees kicking off this month’s update.
Litigation Developments
Hidden Delivery Fees
A number of suits were filed in March regarding undisclosed delivery fees. …
Welcome to our curated selection of highlights of regulatory and litigation developments in the dietary supplement and personal care product industries for March 2021. In case you were wondering what pain relief, teeth whitening, and CBD have in common (and, who wasn’t?) it seems that one year into the pandemic, these are the advertising battles…
When it comes to the legal side of working with influencers, smart companies focus on ensuring that influencers clearly disclose that they are working with the company. After all, that’s where regulators have focused most of their attention in recent years. But that’s not where a company’s obligations stop – companies also need to take…
Welcome to our monthly roundup of regulatory and litigation highlights impacting the dietary supplement and personal care products industries. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the read. February was a short month, with a lot going on.
Health claim substantiation was front and center before NAD in a monitoring case involving Pendulum Therapeutics and a “medical probiotic” product featuring claims such as “The only medical probiotic clinically shown to lower A1C & blood glucose spikes for the dietary management of T2D*” (*Consult your physician as part of your total diabetes management plan. Results may vary from person to person.”)
The advertiser submitted a 12-week multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study (the “Perraudeau Study”) to assess Pendulum Glucose Control’s safety and effectiveness in improving glycemic control in Type 2 diabetics and, ultimately, their dietary management of the disease – specifically, the role of certain probiotic strains found in prior research to be associated with the promotion of a healthy gut microbiome through the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).
The advertiser also provided clinical studies and research articles demonstrating the roles of A1C, fasting glucose and postprandial glucose levels in managing Type 2 diabetes. The advertiser also referred to the FDA’s Guidance document (Diabetes Mellitus: Developing Drugs and Therapeutic Biologics for Treatment and Prevention) to demonstrate what level of reduction in HbA1c was clinically meaningful.
While NAD expressed some concerns about the evidence, ultimately, NAD determined that the Perraudeau Study was a good fit for the challenged claim “The only medical probiotic clinically shown to lower A1C & blood glucose spikes for the dietary management of T2D*” (*Consult your physician as part of your total diabetes management plan. Results may vary from person to person.”) but recommended the following modifications: (1) limiting the claim to individuals who are taking metformin; (2) modifying the claim to clarify that the product can be used as part of the dietary management of type 2 diabetes; and (3) removing the references to percent reductions in blood glucose spikes in the absence of evidence in the record demonstrating that the reductions were clinically relevant.
This decision is a helpful discussion of the competent and reliable scientific evidence standard. Anyone seeking to understand health claims substantiation better should check it out. …
Continue Reading Dietary Supplement and Personal Care Products Regulatory Highlights – February 2021
Welcome to our monthly digest of litigation and regulatory highlights impacting the food and beverage industry. As it has been for many months, the story was mostly about what’s going on in the food court. Let’s take a look….
Vanilla, vanilla, and more vanilla….The plaintiff’s bar remains skeptical of any product labeled as vanilla. …
Welcome to our monthly roundup of regulatory and litigation highlights impacting the dietary supplement and personal care products industries.
NAD tackled substantiation for “#1 Dermatologist Recommended” claims in a challenge involving L’Oreal’s CeraVe moisturizer and use of syndicated survey data to support related claims.
Health claim substantiation was front and center in…
The FDA has published an interim final rule amending definitions related to required notifications regarding drug shortages. 21 C.F.R. 314.81(b)(3)(iii) requires an applicant who is the sole manufacturer certain approved drug products to notify FDA in writing at least 6 months prior to discontinuing manufacture of the drug product. 21 C.F.R. 314.81(b)(3)(iii) now refers to…
On December 14, 2011, the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services issued a report finding that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) failed to properly oversee food facility inspections conducted by states because FDA had not ensured the requisite number of inspections and failed to follow-up appropriately when inspections occurred. The report was issued in response to a request from Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT), Ranking Member on the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations, following a salmonella outbreak attributed to a Georgia peanut processing plant in 2009.
FDA enters into contracts with state agencies where FDA pays the state to conduct inspections of its food facilities. FDA relied on states for a total of 59 percent of the agency’s food inspections in FY 2009, as opposed to only 42 percent in FY 2004, and spent over $8 million on such inspections.…
On December 13, 2011, FDA announced the availability of a draft report entitled “Quantitative Summary of the Benefits and Risks of Prescription Drugs: A Literature Review” for public comment. The literature review was conducted pursuant to section 3507(a) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) which required the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), acting through the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, to determine whether the addition of quantitative summaries of the benefits and risks of prescription drugs in standardized format (e.g., similar to the “Drug Facts” on over-the-counter-products) to the promotional labeling or print advertising of such drugs would “improve health care decision-making by clinicians and patients and consumers.”…
On December 9, 2011, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) issued a notice announcing that a proposal to collect information for a “Experimental Study of Comparative Direct-to-Consumer Advertising” had been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). FDA is required to submit the proposal to OMB for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. FDA’s submission reveals its intent to study direct-to-consumer marketing of FDA-regulated products, with a focus on prescription drug advertising.
According to FDA, research findings on the effects of comparative versus noncomparative ads on purchase intentions indicate that comparative ads result in greater purchase intentions than noncomparative ads. Given the prevalence of comparative advertising, “FDA is embarking on the proposed research to ensure that it has adequate information to assess whether prescription drug comparative DTC ads provide truthful and nonmisleading information to consumers.”…
Continue Reading FDA Proposes “Experimental Study of Comparative Direct-to-Consumer Advertising”
