Airborne Cold Remedy & Their Lawsuit
Depending on where you live, it could be cold season, the onset of cold season or at the very end of cold season – and one of the more recent medicines offered for the cold is the Airborne Cold Remedy. For people who aren’t sure of what that is, it’s a herbal and dietary supplement that, true to its name, is sold as a way to fight the ever common cold.
It’s generally full of all sorts of great stuff for your body, like antioxidants and electrolytes. As stated beforehand, the Airborne Cold Remedy was touted as the way to fight the flu and the cold. It got the same reception that a wanna-be rockstar would get after announcing that his song, made entirely in his mother’s basement, was the new rock anthem – with disdain and a lawsuit.
Well, not just for that.
Airborne Lawsuit
The Airborne lawsuit came about for a wide variety of reasons, the core of which is the fact that it was marketed as a dietary supplement as opposed to a drug. Drugs need to undergo testing and examination by the FDA – dietary supplements do not. Despite the lack of testing, no matter what it is, things on the label still have to be true.
Which is pretty much the problem. You’ve got to be able to prove that what you’re proclaiming it is real and with dietary supplements and drugs, that comes down to scientific testing and standards. The Airborne Lawsuit looked at “GNG Pharmaceutical Services Inc.”, which was the company that examined the Airborne Cold Remedy. Incidentally, GNG Pharmaceutical Services Inc. has no scientists or doctors involved in the company. In fact, it even looks like it the company was pretty much made just to make this study.
Nope, that’s just not good news at all.
The Airborne Cold Remedy didn’t quite deal with the lawsuit well. The Airborne lawsuit alleged that the Airborne Cold Remedy falsely advertised its capabilities, specifically, the way it can handle a flu or a cold. While the defendants have pretty much denied that they did anything wrong, the lawsuit did provoke them into a settlement. It’s been called deceptive, in fact.
The settlement was to the tune of $23 million dollars. That’s no chump change – it was also ruled that they would reimburse everyone who bought the product if they had proof of product. Everyone else who did not have proof of purchase, would be reimbursed for up to six sets. Later on, the FTC declared that Airborne has agreed to pay approximately $30 million.
The Lesson of the Day
Now, if there’s anything to be learned from this entire debacle, it is that you should not trust everything on the label or at least, not blindly. Be wary of magical miracle remedies and cures, especially ones without FDA approval or those that don’t even need it. Nothing comes easy and the common cold is the scrappiest thing to ever crawl up a nostril. If you’re going to trust something, make sure that you trust it for more than the label.