FDA raid company in Florida for illegal dietary supplements

The FDA and U.S. marshals have raided a company in Flordia called Globe All Wellness LLC and have seized supplies of the dietary supplement Meridia, a weight loss drug that was withdrawn from the market in 2010.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stated that the illegal dietary supplements from the Florida based pharmacy were seized because some may contain a dangerous pharmaceutical ingredient. According to Consumer Lab, the drugs seized included SlimXtreme, SlimXtreme Gold, SlimPlus, SlimLee, GelSlim, SlimDrops, and Colonew.

Speaking about the action, Howard Sklamberg, director of the Office of Compliance in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, is quoted by UPI as saying: “Companies that distribute products containing undisclosed drugs are not only breaking the law, they are putting consumers at risk.

With these kinds of hidden dangers, consumers cannot make informed decisions about the products they are taking.” The drug in question is Meridia, a weight loss dietary supplement. The drug is usually in the form of the hydrochloride monohydrate salt compressed into a tablet, and is taken as an oral anorexiant. The drug was withdrawn in 2010 because of concerns that consumption of the pills could increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.

This was based on a study, reviewed by the FDA, which showed that the drug (under the drug’s generic name Sibutramine) posed a significant risk of an adverse cardiovascular event occurring in patients. Although the FDA, along with the European Union, banned the drug from sale, in October 2011, the FDA warned that 20 brands of dietary supplements were tainted with sibutramine.

The news of the FDA raid follows other concerns with dietary supplements, pills that are not subject to the same regulations as prescription medicines. In 2012, the Digital Journal reported that a dietary supplement called Reumofan Plus, manufactured in Mexico and sold in the USA, has been found to contain ‘unlisted ingredients’ which are harmful to human health. Also during 2012, three different supplements manufactured in the U.S: Cataplex ACP, Cataplex C, and Pancreatrophin PMG were withdrawn from the market due to suspected contamination with Salmonella bacteria.