NEWS: International Drug Company Caught in a Lie

CULTURE: International Drug Company Caught in a Lie

File this under 'don't believe everything you read,' and also 'little people CAN make a difference.'

The international pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline is paying damages in New Zealand after a science experiment carried out by two 14-year-old high school students proved that the company's soft drink Ribena, which was advertised as containing a full day's rations of vitamin C, actually contained no detectable traces of the vitamin.

As the news article in the International Herald-Tribune reports:

GlaxoSmithKline will pay $217,000 New Zealand dollars, or about US $156,000, in fines—which is doubtless the tiniest of drops in the bucket, but still.

Caveat emptor, and three cheers for the power of finding out the answer to a question for yourself.

I'm curious as to where those fines go to and what will be done with the money.

And yeah, $156k is probably less than a single product manager's salary and bonus. It's likely the company thought, "Phew, is that all?"

I would like to see MUCH stiffer penalties for any company who dupes the public....including being banned from any sort of advertising for up to one year depending on the severity.

Right on! Power to the people! If people would just take a break on focusing on what makes us diffferent and unique which ultimately separates us and focus on what makes us similar we could come together more often with a common voice and challenge those things that we question. There is nothing more powerful than a very large group of people with a common voice.

In related news, these guys discovered....



There is no Dick in Spotted Dick.

Since the basis for the product is a sham, how about fining them the total of all sales of the product since the first top was popped with interest? It's fraud. I don't see how the penalty could be anything less.

Not to long ago, an internet company was selling designer drugs like 5meo-dmt, and 2ctc as "incense ingredients". When the FDA found out, they fined him all his profits for the sales of the drugs. While it was legal to sell the beverage, it is not legal to make fraudulent claims about the products contents. I know this was NZ and not USA, but am sure the penalty would have been just as marginally weak as the NZ fine.

In fact, if you or I sold a fraudulent product, wouldn't face criminal charges? possible jail time?

I wanna be incorporated!! So i can do anything I want to do.

OMG GLAXO ARE LIARS

ooooooold news.

Heh, housemate works for Glaxo. Time to point and laugh.

-TTm

/golfclap

I'm surprised that the Men on Film didn't also discover that there would be no "sponge" in the Sponge Pudding either.

While I agree with your sentiment, what the heck does your post have to do with this article?

NZ$217,000?!?!?

You GOTTA be joking. This is why "screw the consumer" is such a profitable game for the big corporations.

US$156,000 isn't even going to be noticed.

I guess he just really, really loves Vitamin C.

Glaxo probably spends more on paper clips in a year.

Obviously you're focusing on "what makes us different." Stop it.

Also, 7 grams = .25 oz. 7 mg = .00025 oz. Don't ask me how I know that.

Why would you buy a soft drink from a drug company? What's next viagra breath strips?

I hope the girl who actually did the testing at least got an IPod or something out of the deal.

BTW...do you have a link for those viagra breath mints...?

Isn't that what soft, chewy Cialis is already?

yet another example of why the entire industry needs to be shut down. the practice of lying to and misleading to the consumer has been the main tactic used by this cog in the machine that is the corporate oligarchy called the united states.

big pharma's interest has never been to provide a cure for anything, only to relieve symptoms. why erode your own economic cash-cow? that is a bad business plan. instead, we'll tell you that all natural products are bunk, even though they have worked for trillions of people for millions of years. then we'll get you to diagnose yourself so that way by the time you get to your doctor, you can tell him what drug to put you on. by that time you've already been hooked since you were twelve and diagnosed with ADHD or whatever clever acronym they decide to "diagnose" you with, and thus willingly accept what they tell you.

fucking sheep. they're probably putting mind control substances in all these pills which is the only logical reason bush actually managed to get re-elected.

I am all for stricter corporate accountability...but in this case, I feel that the punishmet fits the crime.

Their claims, though false, do not seem to cause any lasting harm. They said their drink had vitamin C...it didn't. If your diet is so poor that your only source of Vitamin C is a soft drink...odds are you were going to get sick anyway.

If they made claims that you could throw away all of your prescription medication and just drink Ribena...you'd have a case for damages.

This case...is really a case of deception and not damage.

Yeah, those awesome natural cures were kicking ass with everything from polio to smallpox to childhood leukemia until those pricks from big pharma came along with their stupid chemical medicines and either eliminated them or made them very treatable instead of very fatal.
Now, there have been tons of instances of abuse in the industry, as there have been in, say, organized labor. Those abuses should be addressed. But should we really conclude that the "entire industry needs to be shut down"?

Yeah, why don't you try telling all the medicinal chemists that they aren't really working on cures; I think they'll laugh in your face. You tend to forget all those vaccines and cures that are around because you take them for granted.

Big pharma aren't perfect, but they have provided countless things that enhance your life. Sure capitalism has been a large driving factor, but it IS a necessary factor.

Do you guys remember that dude from last Feb? The one who claimed that you shouldn't donate to breast cancer research because it was a scam? Man, I miss that dude.

NM, he was from Sep 05. Still, that was an awesome thread.
leenk

Also, I wonder what version of the FDA they have in NZ.

Everyone seems to have missed the fact that Ribena is amazing. It's easily my favourite drink, and is a great hangover cure. Even if not marketed as a healthy drink, I think it will continue to sell well because it's quite simply the best fluid ever invented.