The court released orders to seize over 3,200 of workout products from two GNC warehouses due to illegal dietary ingredients.
Products associated with GNC, one of the country’s leading dietary supplement retailers, targeted by the seizure order are Jack3d and OxyElitePro. These products allegedly contain dimethylamylamine or DMAA which is known to increase the blood pressure leading to heart attacks. FDA confirmed in April that this stimulant was present in these products.
USPlabs, manufacturer of Jack3d and OxyElitePro, said that they have stopped the production yet GNC is still marketing them for business reasons. GNC spokesman Greg Miller sent an email last Friday to New York Times that the company believes that the products are safe and legal. This triggered the court to release a seizure order of these products from two GNC warehouses located in in Leetsdale, Pa., and Anderson, S.C.
Last June 11, the FDA ordered GNC to stop selling these products and need to dispose them immediately since they are illegal. Two separate complaints were filed in the federal court of Pittsburgh, Pa. and Anderson, S.C. The prosecutors will conduct another inspection this week to see if GNC has finally complied with the court order.
GNC had filed an appeal to the court to stop the seizure and said that they will continue to sell the rest of their inventories until the issue is resolved. Miller insisted that there were weak evidences against the illegality of the products and also mentioned about FDA being biased. Last 2008, 86 health cases and five deaths were reported against products containing DMAA.
“Given this situation,” Mr. Miller wrote in the same email, “it is hard to view this action as anything other than a biased agency action against GNC in retaliation for GNC’s stance on DMAA.”
