Practitioners Criticize “Cure-All” Advertisements

Health authorities in Cebu City lambasted on Friday some radio and print advertisements that reportedly ‘mislead’ the public by saying their products are effective to cure any specific illness but its labels stated “no approved therapeutic claim.”

Alvin Roxas, kidney transplant surgeon at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) also blamed officials of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) for approving these ‘obscure’ products.

“Businessmen behind these products are already millionaires who wreaked people’s money through their illicit business”, Roxas said.

Earlier, the same observation was also made by a high official of the Department of Health (DOH) in region 7 regarding the advertisement of various products by some AM and FM radio stations, including local newspapers, knowing the fact that it mislead the public.

DOH-7 Regional Director Jaime Bernadas , blamed some media outlets who aired these advertisements without properly scrutinizing the truth behind these products.

Roxas and Bernadas did not specifically mentioned certain labels of these allegedly “cure all” medicinal products but both yielded the same conclusion that these products are used to swindle people.

However, Roxas explained that most of the effective medicines who have therapeutic effects are made from various kinds of herbs.

“But to conclude that it has no approved therapeutic claim and then you still buy it, then you are just being swindled by yourself and by the product advertiser”, Roxas said.