I have just noticed that Nuropharm Ltd (trading as http://www.nuratrim.com the parent company of Nuratrim), has been added to the Advertising Standards Authority's list of 'non-compliant online advertisers'. More details here.
This makes me wonder what the relationship between Nuropharm Ltd and Advanced Health Ltd might be...
Advanced Health Ltd are currently on my radar. Recently they have launched a couple of new weight loss products (Nuratrim and Capsiplex Plus) for which I have been trying to find the evidence that matches the PR (well for Nuratrim as there doesn't appear to have been any PR about C-Plus although I think it was expected yesterday). I heard about the products because I had a festive glance at the MoreNiche affiliates forum - the presence of new slimming pills at Christmas and New Year is of course an annual tradition.
According to Amazon "Advanced Health Ltd Store" the company is, or was at 1 January 2012, marketing the following products:
C-plex 60
Capsiplex
Capsiplex Appetite Suppressor
Eyelash Accelerator
Eye Secrets Collagen & Q10
Eye Secrets Q10 Collagen and Anti-Wrinkle Patches
FullFast Appetite Control Spray
Instant Eye Tightener
Magnaslim
Meratol
Nuratrim
Proactol Plus
Slendex
Slendex Carb Blocker
Upper Eyelid Lift
But looky here - ASA adjudication on Advanced Health Ltd from May 2011. It looks as if the Advertising Standards Authority put this complaint in themselves rather than one of the skeptic bloggers. I'm not certain if the Fishbarrel complaints would necessarily record the name of the manufacturer / distributor so probably wouldn't be able to use that to check for other (upheld or not upheld) complaints made against this distributor, I didn't find any others at the ASA's site (but of course they wouldn't mention any 'not upheld' complaints).
This complaint / adjudication was about Meratol for which several claims were made, the one which seems to have bothered the ASA was about being able to block carbohydrate intake / reduce absorption of carbs. Interestingly I have seen this type of claim about the glucomannan component of Nuratrim made on referring (affiliate) websites although not on the manufacturer's site.
I've amended my Polite suggestion to people writing about diet pills post to include info about how to check the ASA's site.
After discussions with the helpful and regulation-knowledgeable @jdc325 it's possible that the claims made for Capsiplex Plus might take it slightly into the area of borderline medical product but I won't know until I speak to the MHRA about it.
According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) journal there was, in 2009, no good evidence linking the dietary intake of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5HTP) with improved mood. Despite this it seems to me that a direct link is made between the two is made on the Capsiplex Plus site. I've FreezePaged the site for now and will monitor the site for further evidence later - it may well be that the appropriate (new?) evidence just hasn't been posted yet.
The company's website is http://www.capsiplex.com/capsiplex-plus/
Further reading (the following posts are already linked / embedded in the text above as well)
- Watch out for some PR about "Nuratrim" - wonder where the evidence is (21 December 2011)
- Capsiplex Plus - yet more magic beans advertised in newspapers (31 December 2011)
- Polite suggestion to people writing about diet pills, patches or other supplements (26 December 2011) - possibly the mildest examples of investigative journalism ever ;)
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Comment policy: I enthusiastically welcome corrections and I entertain polite disagreement ;) Because of the nature of this blog it attracts a LOT - 5 a day at the moment - of spam comments (I write about spam practices,misleading marketing and unevidenced quackery) and so I'm more likely to post a pasted version of your comment, removing any hyperlinks.
Comments written in ALL CAPS LOCK will be deleted and I won't publish any pro-homeopathy comments, that ship has sailed I'm afraid (it's nonsense).