Scientific-Integrity Watchdog Slaps Lawsuit on Maker of Homeopathic Pills

A nonprofit scientific advocacy group sued Boiron last week for deceptively marketing its homeopathic products, legal documents show.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) filed the lawsuit Thursday against Boiron, a Pennsylvania-based manufacturer that sells homeopathic treatments, claiming that the company deceives customers about the nature and effectiveness of its products. The complaint alleges that Boiron sells a plethora of identical treatments that consist of sugar pills and powders, all while claiming that each of the products treat a specific illness or ailment (“Promised Panacea based on Homeopathic Hokum,” according to the lawsuit).

The organization claimed that Boiron used “unfair and deceptive trade practices” in violation of the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act.

“Boiron profits massively by deceiving consumers in their time of need,” said Nick Little, JD, CFI vice president and legal counsel, in a press release.

“Boiron knows its products are worthless junk, so they do everything they can to obscure the truth in order to offload their snake oil upon the unwitting, the ill-informed, and the vulnerable,” Little added. “They can’t be allowed to get away with it any longer.”

In response to an inquiry from MedPage Today, representatives from Boiron said that the company is unable to comment at this time.

Proponents of homeopathy claim that substances that would typically harm a healthy person can cure others that suffer from that same type of harm, CFI said in the complaint. Additionally, homeopathy is based on the claim that the more dilute a substance is, the more powerful its curative effects will be, the organization added.

Boiron groups its products into categories based on the illnesses they target, including skin issues, joint and muscle pain, and motion sickness, among others, according to the complaint.