GNC shares plummet after Oregon sues over supplement ingredients

“GNC sells products obtained from third-party vendors that GNC knows or should know contain unlawful and potentially unsafe ingredients”, the Oregon attorney general’s lawsuit reads.

The suit names ingredients Picamilion and BMPEA, known as hidden speed, which aren’t approved in the United States and aren’t considered safe or natural; the suit also says the company kept selling the supplements, knowing they contained unapproved supplements without testing them or warning customers.

According to the Attorney General, the products that were misrepresented are “actually unapproved drugs that may not be lawfully sold in the United States as a dietary supplement”.

Picamilon, while not approved in the United States, is used as a prescription drug in a few countries to treat neurological conditions. The problem is that although GNC did not manufacture the products with the illegal ingredients, it did allow adulterated products to be sold.

A Vitamin Shoppe spokeswoman said the retail chain removed all products containing picamilon from its stores and website “as soon as the FDA declared that picamilon was not a dietary ingredient”. BMPEA is a powerful synthetic stimulant similar to amphetamine which is banned in sports by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the complaint said. In April, the FDA sent letters to five US companies instructing them to immediately cease the manufacture and sale of their products that tested positive for BMPEA.

The lawsuit against GNC was filed in Multnomah Circuit Court.

There are 25 GNC stores in Oregon, according to the attorney general.

GNC is said to be aware of this FDA study as Jakel was notified by a PubMed service that it was available online back in November 2, 2013. The private’s family filed a lawsuit against GNC, alleging that the supplement was the direct cause of their son’s death.