Down, but not Out: Xenadrine EFX, CortiSlim, and TrimSpa
Xenadrine, CortiSlim, and TrimSpa all experienced significant financial successes in the first half of the 1990’s selling weight loss supplements using flashy TV and print advertisements and a number of questionable diet claims. These illegal tactics ended in 2007, when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined the manufacturers of these products over $20 million in damages to consumers.
The FTC and the FDA are jointly responsible for ensuring that claims made by supplement and pharmaceutical companies are backed up by sound laboratory and clinical data.
However, these huge fines did little to diminish the brand identity of Xenadrine, CortiSlim, and TrimSpa. All three products are now being sold again with many of the same advertising features, including dramatic ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures, weighty claims, and questionable clinical data, this time with added asterisks and disclaimers.
Claims vs. Reality: the 2007 FTC Settlements
In the case of Xenadrine EFX, the product actually led to lower weight loss benefits than its placebo competitor in clinical studies, but that didn’t stop their manufacturer from posting unbelievable ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of endorsers in all of their promotional materials.
The name CortiSlim, along with its heavy advertisements, was designed to promote the supplement as a highly effective remedy for stress-induced weight gain. CortiSlim’s manufacturers also made public claims about the product’s ability to “reduce the risk of osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.” CortiSlim’s marketers were fined over $12 million for their actions.
TrimSpa made unbelievable claims, such as “it makes losing 30, 50, even 70 pounds (or however many pounds you need to lose) painless.” These claims usually revolved around the use of Hoodia gordonii in TrimSpa, an herbal supplement that has not been proven in clinical trials to provide weight loss of that intensity. TrimSpa’s marketers were forced to pay significant monetary damages and end their misleading advertisements.
Safety Regulation: The FTC “prohibits all claims regarding the health benefits, performance, efficacy, safety, or side effects of any weight-loss product, dietary supplement, food, drug, or device, unless the representation is true, not misleading, and substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence.”
Why do these major market failures keep happening?
Products labeled as dietary supplements can be even more dangerous than prescription alternatives, since their efficacy and safety are not regulated by the FDA during the manufacturing process.
LabDoor believes that consumer product safety is too important to leave up to the manufacturers, so we lead the analysis of thousands of compounds and products using independent labs. LabDoor answers the most important questions about each product: Does it work? Is it safe? What’s the cost?
- Header Image: Carsten Schertzer (Flickr)
- FTC Reaches “New Year’s” Resolutions with Four Major Weight-Control Pill Marketers
- Xenadrine.com, CortiSlim.com, and TrimSpa.com.
- Dietary Supplements – U.S. Food and Drug Administration