Class-action lawsuit reveals company sat on 2004 study indicating Cold-FX does nothing to fight colds

Class-action lawsuit reveals company sat on 2004 study indicating Cold-FX does nothing to fight colds


The makers of Cold-FX have sat for years on a study that suggested Canada’s most popular cold and flu remedy was no more effective than a placebo in treating symptoms of the viruses.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/class-action-lawsuit-reveals-company-sat-on-2004-study-indicating-cold-fx-does-nothing-to-fight-colds



The 2004 trial was conducted by Dr. Gerry Predy, a top Alberta public-health official, at a time when the supplement’s makers told consumers the product would bring fast relief from the effects of such ailments.

Handout
HandoutAn August 2011 photo of a bottle of Cold-FX.
Predy continued to do other research on Cold-FX — based on people taking it over months as a preventive measure – and spoke of its prophylactic benefits well after 2004.

But it appears neither he nor the manufacturers have ever publicly divulged results of the short-term treatment trial.

The study has just surfaced in a class-action lawsuit against Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the Quebec drug giant that now owns the product after buying Edmonton’s Afexa Life Sciences in 2011.

“If true, this kind of information should have been disclosed,” argues John Green, the Vancouver lawyer spearheading the class action. “If it had been disclosed, it would probably have been the end of Afexa Life Sciences.”

Companies like Afexa and Valeant are not legally obliged in this country to release any trial results. The Cold-FX report was filed with Health Canada, according to the court document, but the government is barred from making such proprietary information public.

Other, more positive Cold-FX studies, looking at its effects when taken preventively over a number of months, have been published in peer-reviewed journals.


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