Product Alleged to Help Fight AIDS Is Pulled From Shelves

A “food supplement” that its manufacturer says helps to build and strengthen the body’s immune system, but that some experts say may do just the opposite, was withdrawn from store shelves Wednesday pending a court to decide whether to bar it permanently.

Advertising for Nutrimmune, marketed by Great Earth Vitamin Stores across the country, was placed in homosexual publications and implied that the product would help fight AIDS, said Ozzie Schmidt, supervising investigator for the food and drug branch of the state Department of Health Services.

The advertising and literature did not specifically mention acquired immune deficiency syndrome, but “the implication was more than clear,” Schmidt said.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Orange County district attorney’s office alleged that Great Earth Distribution Inc., owned by Phoenix Laboratories of New York, had been distributing nine separate products with inflated or misleading claims of health benefits.

The suit seeks to force Great Earth to modify claims for Yeasterol, PMS Formula, Lowestrol I, II and III, Elavita Formula DP, Thymosin, Vitamin E and Rejuvacell, Deputy Dist. Atty. Wendy G. Brough said.

A trial was scheduled for Aug. 24. Brough dropped a bid for a temporary restraining order barring Nutrimmune sales after an agreement was reached out of court Tuesday to pull the product from Great Earth shelves. Brough said the agreement was for a permanent sales ban, but Great Earth attorney Jay H. Geller contended that the suspension of sales was only temporary.

Great Earth has a history of false promises, Schmidt alleged, but he said that Nutrimmune is a special case and “a bigger mess.”

“They are more specific on their claim. They are playing on a more lucrative market and a more alarmed society.” And, he said, the product could be dangerous.

Dr. George J. Friou of the UC Irvine College of Medicine said that certain combinations of vitamins and minerals could actually be harmful to T-cells, which help the body fight infectious diseases. Great Earth has said that those cells are exactly what Nutrimmune strengthens.

In experiments, one of the product’s ingredients, Interluken II, has shown potentially lethal side effects, Friou said, including fever, kidney failure, liver damage and immense weight gains, up to 37 pounds in three weeks.

But in those experiments, Interluken II was injected, he said, adding that there is no evidence that it would have any effect if swallowed.

“The main thing is, they’re just taking money away from people for nothing,” Friou said Wednesday. “It’s false advertising.”

Schmidt estimated that Great Earth, with 104 stores in California and 41 others across the United States, has yearly revenues of at least $800,000 from Nutrimmune, “but it could be more than 10 times that much.”

Mel Rich, president of Great Earth Distribution, refused to comment Wednesday. John Gorman, president of Great Earth International Inc., which owns the franchise, could not be reached for comment.

Schmidt said that Great Earth had targeted newspapers and magazines aimed at homosexuals for advertising. One such publication, Update newspaper in San Diego, has been running the Nutrimmune ad, but account representative Tom Ellerbrock said the product could be worthless.

“There are so many products touting themselves as boosts to the immune system,” he said. “They’re just harmless vitamins.”

Other publications have been more cautious. Los Angeles’ biweekly Frontiers News Magazine checks advertisers that say they have products to fight AIDS, advertising director David Rhodes said. San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter rejected the Great Earth ad because the product had no documentation as to its effectiveness, according to Bob Ross, the newspaper’s publisher.

The district attorney is seeking $2,500 for alleged false advertising from each defendant, including Great Earth International Inc. and its president, Gorman; Great Earth Distribution; Great Earth of Orange County; Phoenix Laboratories and Los Angeles pharmacist Earl Mindell, who wrote Great Earth literature and who owns a Great Earth store in West Los Angeles, plus others involved with the company.

The state is seeking another $5,000 from each of the 108 defendants for business code violations, plus additional funds to cover costs of the investigation and lawsuit, legal documents indicate.