
Inovio Pharmaceuticals
Claims about the development of a coronavirus vaccine are at the center of a class-action lawsuit.
Supplement company says product is not a "fertility supplement." Its marketing says otherwise.
Supplement company Alani Nu asks on its website, Why Supplements? i.e., Why Should You Take Supplements? But perhaps the question consumers should be asking is, Why Not Supplements?
One of the reasons to be suspicious of supplements is that marketing them as having the ability to treat or prevent disease is – to put it plainly – illegal. Which is to say, there are things that Alani Nu cannot say about its products.
For example, it cannot say that its Balance supplement “fights infertility,” which the World Health Organization describes as “a disease of the reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse.” It cannot say that “Some may take this product to become fertile” (while stating in its FAQs that “Balance is not a fertility supplement”). And it cannot use reviews that say things like “I finally got pregnant … [a]fter seven years of being told I had PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) … Safe to say it does what it says.”
Yet all of the above appear in the company’s marketing of Balance, even after TINA.org alerted Alani Nu to the illegal disease-treatment claims after receiving a tip from a reader earlier this year. (The reader said at the time that Alani Nu was promoting “Balance babies,” i.e., children conceived with the help of the supplement. A recent review by TINA.org did not find the term in the company’s marketing.)
In addition to illegal disease-treatment claims, TINA.org’s inquiry into Alani Nu’s Balance supplement found the following issues:
So if you fall victim to the company’s deceptive health claims, your only option will be to order more products.
Find more of our coverage on products claiming to treat infertility here.
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