Device, Supplement Maker Agrees to $3M FTC Settlement

WASHINGTON—A manufacturer and two of its executives agreed to pay $3 million in consumer redress to settle FTC charges of deceptive claims that one device and numerous nutritional supplements could treat or prevent a wide variety of serious diseases.

FTC had charged Roex, Inc., its president and CEO, Rodney H. Burreson, and its director of consumer education and R&D, Mark Alexander, with making false or unsubstantiated advertising claims, including a claim that colostrum was scientifically proven to be an effective treatment for AIDS.

The defendants also claimed an infrared sauna could treat cancer and a variety of nutritional supplements could treat, reduce the risk of, or prevent various health conditions, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, strokes and heart attacks, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, arthritis, ulcers, herpes, asthma, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases. The products were marketed online and in print materials, but the company's main advertising vehicle was a nationally broadcast, live, hour-long, call-in radio program titled “The Truth About Nutrition.”

Under terms of the settlement, which was approved 3-1, the defendants are barred from making efficacy or safety claims about any drug, food, dietary supplement or device unless the claims are true, non-misleading, and substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence. They are also prohibited from misrepresenting the results of any test or study while advertising or selling any covered product or service.

FTC Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch was the only dissenter, saying, “I respectfully dissent on the grounds that I believe the monetary relief in this consent decree does not reflect the seriousness of the conduct involved."