Do You See Any Eyedrops? DAs Sue Novartis Over Packaging

File this under ‘Now you see it, now you don’t.” A group of district attorneys representing five California counties have filed a lawsuit accusing Novartis and its Alcon eye-care products unit with deceptive advertising for selling Zaditor eye drops in “substantially” empty boxes for the past four years. How so? The drops were sold in large boxes disproportionate to the small amount of product contained, the product was not viewable to the consumer and the interior of the packages had false walls and inserts, according to the lawsuit (here it is). In other words, the packaging gave the impression that there was a larger bottle containing more eye drops than was actually the case. There is a name for this sort of thing – slack fill - and an increasing number of such cases are being pursued in California against manufacturers of various products. “This void space is no small concern to regulators,” write attorneys for the Manatt law firm in their newsletter. “Violations of the law can give rise to significant civil and even criminal penalties. Regulators can seize products from shelves and force costly packaging and labeling changes.” How often might consumers confuse the size of a box with the actual product inside and later feel they were duped? This is unclear, but the issue appears to be something that drugmakers selling over-the-counter products may want to investigate. In late 2011, a similar lawsuit was filed against Fleming Pharmaceuticals concerning...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs