European Court Rules Against Diet Pill Manufacturers
Europe has always been way ahead of the US in regards to health and wellness, and this is yet another example. The list of drugs on the banned list is quite extensive; but interestingly still does not contain some of the drugs manufactured by the bigger pharmaceutical giants…
(article) The European Court has rejected appeals by diet pill manufacturers to be allowed to continue selling numerous anorectic agents that have been withdrawn from the market because of the risk of serious cardiac side effects. On March 9, 2000, the European Commission ordered national marketing authorisation withdrawals of all drugs containing amfepramone, phentermine, clobenzorex, fenbutrazate, fenproporex, mazindol, mefenorex, norpseudoephedrine, phenmetrazine, phendimetrazine and propylhexedrine. The action followed several earlier alerts by the Commission and national authorities about the potential dangers of anorectic agents, many of which had already been taken off the market by manufacturers. However, many companies, especially small firms dependent on these drugs for their financial survival, went to the European Court in Luxembourg to challenge the Commission’s decision. The companies successfully obtained a stay of execution during 2000 but the President of the Court has now annulled this, saying that the lower court should not have substituted its own opinions for those of the European Commission’s scientific advisory committee. In a judgement dated April 11, President Rodriguez Iglesias added that allowing the drugs to stay on the market could have presented a serious risk to the health of consumers. He recalled that the protection of public health is more important than company economic considerations.