SeroVital

April 2017: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s decision to dismiss this lawsuit.

March 2015: The plaintiffs appealed the district court’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit. The case is now pending in the 9th Circuit. (Kwan v. SanMedica International, LLC, Case No. 15-15496, 9th Cir.).

February 2015: After the plaintiffs filed a new complaint alleging that SanMedica International falsely advertises SeroVital, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit again because, among other things, the plaintiffs failed to cite a study that disproves the advertised claims at issue. The judge dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning that plaintiffs cannot refile the complaint.

October 2014: A federal judge dismissed a false advertising class-action lawsuit against SanMedica International, LLC and Sierra Research Group, LLC. The complaint, which was filed earlier in 2014, alleged that the companies deceptively marketed an over-the-counter amino acid supplement SeroVital. According to the complaint, the marketing campaign represented that SeroVital was clinically tested to increase human growth hormone (HGH) levels by 682% and resulted in “youthful skin integrity, lean musculature, elevated energy production, [and] andipose tissue distribution,” without scientific evidence to support such claims.

The judge dismissed the lawsuit finding that plaintiffs did not show a lack of support for the marketing claims, and gave plaintiffs until December 1, 2014 to amend their complaint. (Kwan et al v. SanMedica International, LLC and Sierra Research Group, Case No. 14-cv-3287, N. D. CA.).

For more information about the advertising of supplements and TINA.org’s coverage of the issue, click here.