Firms Indicted in Sales of ‘Anti-Aging’ Drugs
Taking aim at a booming black market in anti-aging remedies, federal prosecutors Monday announced the indictment of a California family, a German executive and five businesses on 198 counts of smuggling millions of dollars of so-called “fountain of youth” drugs into the United States.
More than 15 tons of the drugs, made in Europe but not approved for sale in the United States, were smuggled into California over the past five years, then repackaged and shipped to gyms, health food stores and nutritional centers in 43 states, authorities said.
The distribution of the drugs--pills and injections touted as “cell therapies” and “sexual tonics”--netted at least $5 million, prosecutors said. The black market in anti-aging remedies has mushroomed into a national industry now worth $2 billion annually, though the drugs do nothing to retard the aging process and may be harmful, authorities said.
“This is health fraud, pure and simple,” Dr. David A. Kessler, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said at a news conference.
Calling it a “cruel and costly hoax,” Kessler said the smugglers of anti-aging drugs prey upon “the elderly, the sick and the gullible.” He said the indictment should send “a message to American consumers: If a remedy sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
In recent years, however, American consumers have been increasingly willing to snap up remedies that promise to turn back the clock.
In announcing the indictment, prosecutors cited a congressional report asserting that the $2-billion black market in anti-aging drugs is the fastest-growing segment of a $10 billion-per-year “quackery scandal.”
The readily available potions have caught the public’s fancy.
Movie star Sylvester Stallone told Longevity magazine a few weeks ago that he takes an anti-aging drug called Gerovital H3. “I inject myself in the butt three days a week for three weeks twice a year,” he said, according to a wire service report of the magazine article.
Stallone could not be reached Monday for comment. His Los Angeles-based publicist declined comment. Authorities said it is not unlawful to use the products.
Prosecutors said Gerovital H3--on display at the news conference--is derived from a product proved only to be a topical anesthetic.
Also on display were “cell therapies,” chemical substances isolated from the tissues of young sheep or cattle that are promoted for more than 100 medical conditions ranging from acne to sterility, prosecutors said.
FDA officials said these products could lead to a variety of diseases, including bovine spongiform encephalitis, also known as “mad cow disease,” a degenerative brain disorder that can lead to paralysis, insanity and death.
Another product on display was Zumba Forte. Touted as a “stimulant for men,” it supposedly includes vegetable substances discovered by primitive native inhabitants of tropical jungles.
Prosecutors said it also includes an anabolic steroid, methyltestosterone, whose possible adverse side effects include liver cancer and cardiovascular damage.
The indictment alleges that entrepreneur David Halpern, 38, of Pebble Beach imported huge quantities of Zumba Forte, Gerovital H3 and cell therapies from Germany and England, using sham corporations and mail drops in Southern California registered to fictitious names.
He also allegedly imported a wide variety of other substances, including an injectable product that was identified as derived from human umbilical cords, said Assistant U. S. Atty. Phillip Halpern, the prosecutor in the case. The alleged scheme ran from 1983 through 1990, when U. S. Customs Service officials opened a box shipped to San Diego that contained drugs and had been mislabeled “curtain rods,” said Halpern, who is no relation to David Halpern.
The prosecutor said David Halpern claimed sales of $1 million annually on his tax returns.
Gerovital H3--in tablets--sold for $9.95 for a package of 25, according to the indictment. Zumba Forte was $39.95 for 300 tablets. Ten injectable ampuls of cell therapy solution went for $199.95. Two ampuls of “human umbilical cord dilution” cost $39.
Also named in the indictment were David Halpern’s mother, Frances D. Halpern, 65, of San Diego; his sister, Frances H. Wellgood, 37, of Little River, Calif.; her husband, Edward Sollisch, 62, and Maximillian Schmidt, 26, of Munich, Germany, president of Zumba GmbH, the firm that makes Zumba Forte. The indictment also names three British firms; and Emanon Inc., of Ft. Bragg, Calif.
The smuggling and conspiracy charges carry prison terms ranging from two to five years and fines of $250,000--on each of the 198 counts. The case was brought in San Diego because of the locations of various mail drops.
