Lane Labs
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
District Court has the power to order consumer restitution under the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rules Oct. 21. The decision upholds a July 2004 New Jersey District Court opinion ordering Allendale, N.J.-based Lane Labs to pay consumer redress for marketing dietary supplements, such as BeneFin, as cancer therapies (1"The Tan Sheet" July 19, 2004, p. 9). According to the appellate court, consumer restitution is in accordance with established case law and the legislative history of the FD&C Act as it is not prohibited by the Act and furthers the purpose of the statute. The Court concedes that the analytic framework used in reaching the decision has been challenged by several cases but deems the cases to be "merely bumps in the road and not...roadblocks to the conclusions we have reached." The case was argued June 30 (2"The Tan Sheet" July 4, 2005, p. 16)...