Myogenix Guilty of Selling Steroids

SAN JOSEMyogenix Corp. admitted it sold a steroid-laced product marketed as a dietary supplement. Corporate defendant Mark Newman, the director of operations for Myogenix, pleaded guilty  on behalf of the company in federal court in San Jose.

United States Attorney Melinda Haag said Myogenix introduced and delivered unapproved new drugs into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead.  Myogenix admitted that, beginning in approximately September 2007 and continuing through July 2009, it knowingly sold the purported dietary supplement, Spawn, which contained the synthetic steroid Estradienedione/Estra/Tren,  a drug that was not approved by FDA.

The felony guilty plea was entered before U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen pursuant to an agreement the company made with the government.  Myogenix was sentenced to a fine of $50,000, and a criminal forfeiture of $100,000, which the defendant paid immediately.

The plea agreement requires Myogenix monitor and test, at its own expense, all products it distributes for five years; the testing must be done by an independent testing organization. These test results must be sent to FDA from the independent third-party testing organization before the company can sell the products.

INSIDER's Take:

This seems like a case of economic adulteration, where a company sold products it knew contained drugs because these mislabeled products produced faster and stronger results than a true, legal dietary supplement could.

Supplement industry experts discussed, defined and debated economic adulteration on the SupplySide Community; view a slide show of hot point from that discussion here.