THE Ministry of Health has pulled advertisements for the locally-produced nutritional supplement, Immuno-gizer, claiming that the product is not registered even though it had been on the shelves since 2004.

While admitting that there were no safety risks surrounding the product since cursory assessments were done when it was submitted for registration, head of the Standards and Regulations Department in the Ministry of Health, Princess Thomas Osbourne, said the product was not yet registered and as such should not be advertised.

“…They should not advertise the product because the law (Food and Drug Act) does not give them permission to advertise unless the product is approved. The law also does not give permission for advertisement unless the Ministry of Health has approved the advertisement,” she said. “The ads never came to us for approval and so I had a meeting with the media houses to advise them on the matter.”

But Dr Robert Robinson, the founder and CEO of Immuno-Venture Products Ltd, the company that manufactures the product, said although the advertisements were removed since April, the company was informed about the sanctions only two Fridays ago.

“They sent a form for us to apply for registration in 2006 we did that and have been communicating with them since then to complete the registration process, but we had not heard from them until last week, so currently our lawyers are ironing out the matter with them,” Dr Robinson said, adding that the ministry’s action has resulted in a drop in sales.

“The first time we had any indication that there was a problem with our registration was on Friday (June 6) and this was sent to our old lawyer even though our current lawyers have written to them and indicated that they are the ones handling the matter right now.”

Immuno-gizer is a pre-biotic supplement designed to boost the body’s Immune System. It is said to eliminate the effects of additives in processed foods and restore the health properties of these foods.

Dr Robinson, who is a specialist in internal medicine, developed the product in 2004. The advertisements are mostly testimonials from arthritic and asthmatic patients, who attest to the product’s potency.

But Thomas Osbourne said these claims were not substantiated in the application that was submitted even though it was listed as a requirement.

“In order for us to approve those sort of claims, we have to have the evidence and in order to have the evidence they have to provide the information to us,” she told the Observer.

“That kind of information was not provided. I have made a request and we didn’t receive a response.”

But Robinson contends that had the ministry related its concern at an early stage, the matter would have been cleared up in short order.

“The claims that we make are claims related to pre-biotics that have been shown to do a number of things. Our product contains FOS (Fructooligo-saccarides) which a lot of scientific work has been done on and all the claims we have made with the product are related to FOS and what FOS can do because it is a major component of our product. We don’t claim anything outside of what has been scientifically shown that FOS can do,” he added.

Meanwhile, Thomas Osbourne has admitted that a lack of resources hampers the ministry’s efforts to effectively monitor applications submitted to the ministry. As a result, she said it is incumbent on applicants to ensure that their applications are processed.

“They (Immuno-Venture Products Ltd) really do make a number of claims and if you are going to make any of those claims you have to prove that the claims are valid,” she said, adding that the law also speaks to “misleading the public”.

According to Dr Robinson, Immuno-gizer was patented in Jamaica in 2005 and the factory where the product is manufactured in Clarendon was also approved by the Bureau of Standards . The candied form of Immuno-gizer, he said, is also registered with the United States Food and Drug Administration.