"When is a diet pill worth $153 a bottle?" asks one of the most popular TV infomercials of the past year.
Certainly not when it's Leptoprin.
Dramatic, unsubstantiated weight and fat loss claims continue to tempt the overweight with new hope for a quick fix. If you read the very small fine-print during these ads, you’ll see “Results not typical.” Hmm.
I’ve seen this commercial so much that I can’t even quote Melissa Pace (The Hostess). Now that is pathetic. So, I decided to do a little research on this “amazing diet drug” and did a Google search.
Wickipedia’s entry in my Google search results looked like this:
Leptoprin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leptoprin/Leptopril is a weight-loss pill marketed by Generics Labs. ... Whoever last edited the Leptoprin page here on Wikipedia had erased everything and ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptoprin - 15k - Cached - Similar pages
I thought it quite interesting that on the search result for Wickipedia it said, “Whoever last edited the Leptoprin page here on Wikipedia had erased everything and ...” So, I decided to dig deeper and find out more about this drug, the company and the FTC action.
So here’s what the product is: The name Leptoprin may sound like leptin, a protein the body makes to control fat stores. Leptoprin is an herbal supplement marketed by "A.G. Waterhouse", a front for Basic Research of Salt Lake City, Utah. It was formerly known as Anorex. Despite the pharmaceutical-sounding name, the company that makes Leptoprin (and Leptopril) is not a pharmaceutical company.
The method of advertising the product is unique, and begins with the question "When is a diet pill worth $153 a bottle?" The ad goes on to claim that Leptoprin is "developed for the significantly overweight", that it is "much too powerful" for the "casual dieter".
There is also a less expensive "generic" version of the formulation called Leptopril, which is advertised as being developed by "Generix Labs". The two products are in fact exactly the same, being marketed to two different consumer personalities by the same company.
"Clinical studies don't lie," says the Web site of Leptoprin's manufacturer, A.G. Waterhouse, one of several related Utah companies that hawk dubious supplements on TV and online.
"In a recent clinical trial, subjects who were given the active Leptoprin-SF compound (in conjunction with modest caloric restriction and exercise) experienced eleven times (1100%) more weight loss and 63 percent more fat loss than those on diet and exercise alone."
In fact, the six overweight subjects lost no more weight or body fat after six weeks on Leptoprin's active ingredients than 14 others who were given either a placebo or nothing at all.
The Federal Trade Commission has come after this company for deceptive practices. In fact, The Commission’s complaint names: Basic Research, L.L.C.; A.G. Waterhouse, L.L.C.; Klein-Becker usa, L.L.C.; Nutrasport, L.L.C.; Sovage Dermalogic Laboratories, L.L.C.; BAN, L.L.C.; Dennis Gay; Daniel B. Mowrey, Ph.D., also doing business as American Phytotheraphy Research Laboratory; and Mitchell K. Friedlander, all operating from the same Salt Lake City facility. Hmmmm.
Here are a few highlights from the FTC’s brief against the makers of this super popular diet drug.
[Federal Register: May 18, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 96)]
[Notices]
[Page 28865-28867]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18my06-56
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
[Docket No. 9318]
Basic Research LLC, et al.; Analysis of Agreement Containing
Consent Order To Aid Public Comment
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Proposed consent agreement.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged violations of Federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or
practices or unfair methods of competition. The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both the allegations in the complaint and the terms of the consent order--embodied in the consent agreement--that would settle these allegations.
The Complaint Allegations
According to the Commission's Complaint, Individual Respondents Dennis Gay, Daniel Mowrey (also doing business as American Phytotheraphy Research Laboratory), and Mitchell K. Friedlander all worked from the same Salt Lake City, Utah facility as Corporate Respondents Basic Research, L.L.C., A.G. Waterhouse, L.L.C., Klein-Becker usa, L.L.C., Nutrasport, L.L.C., Sovage Dermalogic Laboratories, L.L.C., and BAN, L.L.C., who have operated as a common enterprise to advertise and sell a broad line of topical gels and dietary supplements.
The Commission's Complaint alleges that these Respondents engaged in deceptive practices in advertising and selling topical fat-loss gels. Specifically, the Commission's Complaint challenges the following claims as unsubstantiated: That Leptoprin and Anorex cause weight loss of more than 20 pounds in significantly overweight users and that those products cause loss of substantial, excess fat in significantly overweight users.
Additionally, the Complaint challenges the following claims as false: That clinical testing proves that Leptoprin causes weight
loss of more than 20 pounds, including as much as 50, 60, or 147 pounds, in significantly overweight users; and that clinical testing
proves that Leptoprin causes loss of substantial, excess fat in significantly overweight users;
That Respondent Mowrey is a medical doctor.
The Proposed Consent Order
The proposed consent order contains provisions designed to prevent Respondents from continuing the illegal conduct alleged in the Complaint, and from engaging in future practices similar to those previously alleged.
Paragraph V provides that Basic Research will pay the sum of three million dollars ($3,000,000), on behalf of all Respondents, to the Commission. In the discretion of the Commission, these funds may be used to provide redress to purchasers of any of the products challenged in the Complaint and to pay the attendant administrative costs. If the Commission determines, in its sole discretion, that redress to product purchasers is wholly or partially impracticable or is otherwise unwarranted, any funds not used will be paid to the U.S. Treasury.
The proposed order allows Respondents to engage in various forms of legitimate conduct. The order does not prohibit Respondents from making any claim for any drug that is permitted in labeling for that drug under any tentative final or final standard established by the Food and Drug Administration (``FDA'').
By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. E6-7533 Filed 5-17-06; 8:45 am]
So if you want to lose weight fast. Stop eating. Learn control. Diet. Exercise. Get a gastric bypass like I did. The bottom line is that there is NO diet drug that will burn off fat. It takes self-control. It takes a change in lifestyle. If you’re significantly overweight…I feel your pain. I used to be 459 pounds. Now I’m 218. It took radical surgery to do that. I had to change my lifestyle or die. I tried the fads to no avail.
This blog is publish by Peter D. Sawyer, Peter Sawyer, Pete Sawyer, Pete, Sawyer, AKA Petey, Petey-Petey, Turdsi, Hump, Dude, bro, brah, kimosabee, a—hole, skinny, fatty, ugly, geek, loser, bozo, fatso, stupid, blockhead, dimwit, dodo, dolt, dullard, dumb bunny, dumb cluck, dumb head, dumbbell, dumbo, dumdum, dunce, fool, idiot, ignoramus, moron, numskull, oaf, simpleton, dumb, gay, queer, freak, dummy, fool, half-wit; imbecile; dolt, dunce, numskull, DBA actor, beggar, bum, bummer, castaway, dawdler, delinquent, drifter, floater, good-for-nothing, grifter, hobo, leper, loafer, lounger, ne'er-do-well*, outcast, pariah, remittance man, renegade, scumbag, skid-row bum, slimeball, stiff, stumblebum*, tramp, untouchable, vag, vagabond, vagrant, wastrel.
Clinical studies may not lie, but ads do.
