Sellers face court for pushing pills with cancer-cure claims

By ANGELA GREGORY health reporter

The Ministry of Health will prosecute people caught selling expensive sugar pills as treatments for cancer and other serious diseases.

Last month the Herald alerted the ministry to questionable tactics being used to sell the nutritional products produced by American company Mannatech and marketed using local distributors in a direct selling scheme.

Some sellers told the Herald that they could cure or treat cancer and an American company representative implied at a public meeting the special blend of sugars could stop cancers from progressing.

Medsafe - the ministry unit that assesses medicine safety - warned Mannatech in writing it was in breach of the law after the Herald's report of the meeting.

Medsafe spokesman Peter Pratt said the flagship product Ambrotose, a sugar gum with aloe vera extract, could not be banned under the Medicines Act as it was a nutritional supplement and not in itself dangerous.

But those making false claims about any therapeutic properties faced prosecution under the act with fines to individuals of up to $20,000 or six months' jail.

Mannatech replied it had strict procedures to stop its distributors making therapeutic claims, and was prepared to discipline them.

Mr Pratt said Medsafe intended to prosecute and report back to Mannatech any distributors caught making false claims.

He already had complaints to follow up including cases where sellers had distributed written testimonies from those claiming to have had serious diseases relieved by the pills.

David Russell, of the Consumers' Institute, said there also appeared to be a clear breach of the Fair Trading Act where individuals could be fined up to $30,000 for making misleading or deceptive claims about products.

Mr Russell said that included instances where the misleading information was implied.

"Some people are so desperate that they will try anything, no matter what the conventional medical wisdom says."

The Herald in early February attended a public meeting to promote Mannatech products in Auckland with a presentation of more than two hours by the company's medical director of complementary medicine, Dr Stephen Nugent.

Dr Nugent repeatedly referred to breast and child cancer in his presentation and while not using the "cure" word explained he could not say "certain things" because of the New Zealand Government and its regulatory bodies.

He said there was a moral duty to spread the message if people did not want to end up at funerals which they could have helped prevent.

So potent were the messages that even though the Herald story highlighted concerns about the marketing of the product, some people rang in, desperate to help sick relatives.

They wanted to to buy the pills, which can cost hundreds of dollars a month, for family members with cancer.

The Herald refused to pass on contact details

A Mannatech spokesman told the Herald yesterday that the company was concerned that therapeutic claims were being made about the health supplements and that such claims were a policy breach.

The story so far

* 2002: Complaints to Commerce Commission and Ministry of Health over selling Mannatech to cancer patients

* February 3: Hundreds attracted to Mannatech presentations. A distributor says the products cured her lung cancer.

* February 14: Herald publishes article airing concerns about Mannatech.

* March 9: Further bad publicity over false therapeutic claims by some distributors causes outcry from groups including the Aids Foundation and Cystic Fibrosis Association.

* March 10: Ministry of Health confirms it has formally warned Mannatech and could prosecute