Federal Marshals Raid Diet Remedy Operation

Federal marshals on Friday confiscated all skin-patch weight-loss products from the headquarters and manufacturing plants of a San Diego company, one of several Southern California firms under investigation for selling unauthorized diet remedies.

The Friday morning raid netted the major components from a weight-loss system called Appetoff, which is marketed by Meditrend International of San Diego, a spokesman from the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

The patches and a tonic that Meditrend claims suppresses appetite make up the Appetoff kit. When the chemically treated patches are placed on the body, they allegedly help suppress appetite and help wearers lose weight.

The patches are under investigation by the Food and Drug Administration. That agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research announced last week that products such as Appetoff and Le Patch--a product marketed by New Source Ltd. of Laguna Hills--are “being viewed as a drug delivery system that requires FDA approval.”

According to William Grigg, an FDA spokesman in Washington, no skin-patch diet aids have that approval from his agency.

The Appetoff system has been on the market since last fall and had $6 million in sales in the first quarter of 1988, a Meditrend spokesman said.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles filed a civil forfeiture action against Appetoff at the FDA’s request, said Roger West, first assistant chief of the U.S. Attorney’s civil division in Los Angeles.

Such an action is filed against products, not the companies that manufacture or market them, West said, and it makes the confiscated product property of the federal government.

On Friday, West said, marshals raided two Los Angeles County firms--Beco Chemical in Lynwood and Jerica Packaging in Sylmar--that manufacture the product or its components. They also raided the San Diego headquarters of the private company.

Grigg estimated that the federal marshals had confiscated nearly $23 million worth of Appetoff kits; Meditrend spokesman Clifton Jolley said the value of the kits was closer to $1 million.

Although FDA officials refused to comment on whether Friday’s action is the first in a series of raids on patch-making companies, sources said that future raids of other companies are possible.

Meditrend officials said they were shocked by the action, which they termed “abrupt,” because the company itself announced last week that it was voluntarily pulling the product on June 15.

Health experts have called skin-patch diet programs the latest questionable health fad.

“If you put them over your mouth, it might help you lose weight,” said Dr. William Jarvis, president of the National Council Against Health Fraud.