Today's announcement by the FDA to ban the dietary supplement ephedra, which comes more than two years after we petitioned the agency to do so, shows the dangerous cowardice of FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, who waited to act until receiving reports of more than 155 deaths of ephedra users instead of acting much earlier. All the scientific evidence and legal authority to ban ephedra was in place at the time of our petition, which we filed in September 2001. One reason major manufacturers have stopped selling ephedra is that the companies have become uninsurable because of massive losses in product liability cases. Several weeks ago, the last major manufacturer of ephedra dietary supplements - Metabolife - announced that it would no longer sell ephedra. When we filed our petition, there were reports of 81 ephedra-related deaths. Now, after that number has nearly doubled and very little ephedra is being manufactured, the FDA finally announces a ban. This is an inexcusable dereliction of responsibility by an agency that has acted more like an ephedra sales extension agency than the public health agency it is supposed to be.

Our firm recently settled the last of many

ephedra-related death cases that we have

investigated over the past few years.

This case involved the death of a 24-year

old Alabama woman.

She died while participating

in correction officer training

exercises after taking

an ephedra- and caffeine-

containing dietary supplement.

We have previously written about other

similar settlements in cases,

the most notable of

which was featured in

People magazine and

involved the death of a

mother during an afternoon

run after ingesting a

Nutraquest ephedra product.

That victim died while

her children looked on.

In fact, Nutraquest,

a company which made millions

off its ephedra-based products,

filed for bankruptcy in 2003

as a result of the numerous

personal injury and wrongful

death actions filed against it.

That bankruptcy is only now –

years later – being finalized

with a plan to settle all of those

cases for a total of $34.5 million.

The creditors of the debtor

are expected to approve the plan

to resolve the bankruptcy

in the next few days. Our firm

played a large role in seeing

through the resolution of these

cases, due in large part to

our readiness to try a case

involving the death of an

Army Master Sargeant

who died during his daily

basketball match after

taking a Nutraquest

ephedra-containing product.

A common denominator in each

of these cases, regardless

of the manufacturer or

distributor, is the complete disregard

for the safety of consumers.

Not a single one of these

companies adequately tested or

researched the safety

of their products. It was all

about marketing and profits

in the most recent case, which

was brought against a

contract manufacturer,

distributor, and contract packager.

Not only was the product not tested

by any defendant,

but each defendant was adamant

that it had no responsibility

regarding the safety of its

ephedra-containing product.

At least two of the defendants

admitted they were aware of

injuries and deaths that had

been reported from

people ingesting ephedra products.

It is frightening to learn that

the regulation of food supplements,

such as ephedra, is grossly inferior

to that of pharmaceutical

products, despite the fact that

many herbal products have properties

 similar to pharmaceuticals.

In fact, current regulations don’t

even require food supplement

manufacturers to test their products

before marketing them. The public

would be shocked to learn that

the FDA has little control over the

herbal supplement industry.

Thus, many of those products

pose potential health risks of a

grave nature. In the case of

ephedra products,

the pharmaceutical properties

of the ephedra alkaloids have

been well known by scientists.

Unfortunately, companies in the

U.S. marketed those dangerous

products to the detriment of

consumers. It is amazing to learn

that many of the companies were

started by individuals with

absolutely no training or experience

in either medicine or science.

In our last case, the main defendant

was a pipe layer and yard

worker who had no experience

in herbal supplements. Nevertheless,

this man started producing multi-vitamins

and eventually

the ephedra product that

killed our client.

Ephedra-containing products

have been banned by the FDA

as a result of the numerous

injuries and deaths resulting

from the sale these products.

Our firm is proud to have been

a part of litigation that led to the

ultimate ban of this extremely

dangerous herb. Unfortunately,

a lot of people died as a result

of ingesting ephedra-containing

supplements, including

a beautiful, 24-year old young

lady whose life –

full of promise and happiness –

was cut way too short.

Roger Smith from our firm,

along with David Miceli of

Carrollton, Georgia, and

Christy Crow of Union Springs,

Alabama, represented the family

and did an outstanding job.

OUR BLEEDING HEARTS