April 18, 2012

The Canadian affiliate of the Center for Inquiry (CFI) recently announced that it is lending its scientific support to assist with a monumental $30 million lawsuit against two Canadian retailers for their peddling of a useless homeopathic product in violation of consumer protection laws. Oscillococcinum, a product marketed as a remedy for flu-like symptoms, is in reality merely sugar water with no medicinal properties whatsoever (other than a possible placebo effect). The lawsuit is being filed against Shoppers Drug Mart and Boiron Canada for their sale and marketing of this product.

Meanwhile, CFI stands ready to support similar cases here in the United States. CFI is willing to assist individuals who believe they have been defrauded or otherwise harmed through the marketing of homeopathic products. If you are interested in discussing the possibility of pursuing legal remedies, please contact Steven Fox, CFI’s Legal Director. (Note: This inquiry does not constitute a binding offer of legal services.)

“People are unconscionably being misled in their time of greatest vulnerability: when they’re sick,” said Ron Lindsay, President and CEO of CFI. “We intend to stand up for consumers and their right to be told the truth about the medicines they spend their hard-earned money on. We will take the fight to the perpetrators of homeopathic fraud in the media, in legislatures, and yes, in the courts.”

CFI and its affiliate organization the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry recently filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration requesting that the agency institute regulations that would require over-the-counter homeopathic drugs to meet the same standards of effectiveness as conventional drugs, which is currently under consideration [PDF]. Although the FDA has the authority to require homeopathic drugs to undergo testing for effectiveness, it has to date declined to do so.

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The Center for Inquiry, a nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research organization based in Amherst, New York, is also home to the Council for Secular Humanism and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. The mission of the Center for Inquiry is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values.