Okla. Company Warned By FDA After Claiming Fake Coronavirus Cure

Wednesday, March 11th 2020, 1:24 am

By: Grant Hermes

An Oklahoma company was forced to remove references to the novel coronavirus from its site after the Food and Drug Administration warned marketing of an unproven supplement as a cure was “a threat to public health.”

In a letter dated last week, the FDA warned the Atoka company, N-Ergetics, to stop claiming the supplement colloidal silver could cure or mitigate COVID-19. Colloidal silver is the name given to tiny particles of silver suspended in liquid meant to be ingested.

The administration noted N-Ergetics used several claims about the abilities of colloidal silver like, “this Chinese Wuhan Flu Pneumonia has a non-traditional remedy...","the only known anti-viral supplement to kill... human coronaviruses," and "colloidal Silver kills all viruses."

The company does have a disclaimer on its website telling customers it doesn’t make any claims to prevent treat or cure human disease. The disclaimer can be found directly under a paragraph describing another product, colloidal gold, as a treatment for “nervous disorders.”

N-Ergetics took down the claims cited by the FDA shortly after the warning letter, leaving only question marks and blanks where references to the virus were. The company's YouTube page of reviews has been shut down for violating the platform's terms which include misinformation.

But another channel linking to N-Ergetics, claiming colloidal silver can cure 650 diseases including SARS, MRSA and even Ebola was still online.

In a statement online the company told customers, "We make no claims of any product for the ability to prevent, treat, or cure human disease. Nothing we offer for sale is intended to mitigate, prevent, treat, diagnose or cure COVID-19 in people.”

Attempts to reach the owners of N-Ergetics were unsuccessful.

When asked about the sale of miracle-cures or supplements, the Oklahoma Commissioner of Health, Gary Cox, didn’t reference the FDA nor the fraudulent products but instead said the state was working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“"The Oklahoma State Department of Health is working with our federal partners at the CDC to monitor the developing outbreak. The OSDH is providing information to local health departments and healthcare providers across Oklahoma on how to safely and effectively evaluate possible cases of COVID-19,” Cox said. “The OSDH will continue to monitor the situation for the health and safety of all Oklahomans, including verifying with local, state and federal authorities any public information that is not accurate. We will work to work with partners to identify any possible cases, provide information and consultation to ensure that possible cases are managed safely, support laboratory testing, and implement recommendations from the CDC."

There is currently no vaccine or known cure for the new coronavirus. An experimental treatment has begun in Washington state with results pending.

As of Wednesday, There have been 647 cases of the coronavirus nationwide. In Oklahoma, there have been two confirmed cases.