More sports nutrition competitor lawsuits over SARMs

Athletic Xtreme (also known as Nutrition Distribution) has continued its fight against competitors using illegal ingredients in sports supplements, this time filing lawsuits against two companies for marketing sports supplements for containing SARMs (selective androgen receptor modulators), which FDA has stated are not legal dietary ingredients.

Under the Lanham Act, companies can sue competitors for unfair competition, which is the basis for the new lawsuits, against Wicked Nutrition Labs, for its Wicked Anabolic supplement (contains ostarine), and Dynamic Technical Formulations (DTF), for its Tri-Ton supplement (contains ostarine and andarine).

Athletic Xtreme makes a muscle development supplement called Mass FX Black, which does not contain SARMs. It has filed similar lawsuits in the past couple of years.

The complaint against DTF claimed, “Users of such products have little incentive to use a natural product like Mass FX Black until they are hurt, or the SARMS Products are taken off shelves." The lawsuits were filed Aug. 17 in Arizona by attorney Robert Tauler of Tauler Smith, a specialist in using the civil courts to take down domestic supplement manufacturers who sell harmful and banned substances.

“These manufacturers are putting the public’s health at risk with every bottle that is sold," Tauler said. “People need to know the dangers of what they are ingesting, and none of this information is contained in the defendants’ advertising materials, their websites or on the products themselves."

Roswell, Georgia-based DTF issued a voluntary recall of Tri-Ton in May 2017, after FDA found the supplements contained the SARMS ostarine and andarine, which the agency has stated are not legal in dietary supplements due to their being anabolic steroids and under substantial clinical investigations by pharmaceutical companies.

The complaint against DTF stated clinical studies have shown SARMs are not safe for human consumption.

“Indeed, medical experts have opined that products containing SARMs ‘have many recognized potential serious side effects, including hepatoxicity (liver damage) and markedly lower plasma HDL cholesterol (raising the risk of heart disease),’ and may have more serious consequences that are currently unknown," the complaint said. It further noted SARMs are banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

The complaint against Lake Oswego, Oregon-based Wicked Nutrition was filed Aug. 22 in Southern California and includes Wicked’s owner Jeremy Lee Giles. The complaint cited Wicked’s webpage touting the benefits of its SARMs products; INSIDER found the page was still available at press time.

In both lawsuit, Athletic Xtreme asked for preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, prohibiting the defendants from making and marketing supplements containing SARMs. It also has asked for treble damages and awards for all profits made from the illegal sales of the defendants’ SARMs-containing products.

INSIDER contacted all parties involved, including attorneys, but none provided comments on the lawsuits.

For more info on SARMS in sports nutrition, check out the popular INSIDER Healthy Podcast, SARMs in Sports Nutrition with longtime sports nutrition attorney Rick Collins, Collins, Gann, McCloskey & Barry PLLC.