GNC Holdings Inc Hit With Lawsuit By Oregon Justice Dept; Stock Plummets

The office of Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has lodged a legal complaint against GNC Holdings, which it says knowingly sold dietary products containing illegal ingredients.

The attorney general alleged that GNC sold over 3,000 products with picamilon in Oregon between January 2013 and June 2015, and as many as 500 products with BMPEA in the same period.

This lawsuit comes as a recent crack down by federal and state officials on supplements, claiming to be all-natural but actually containing hidden drug ingredients. The Attorney General also commended the work of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for their technical assistance in the investigation.

Pittsburgh-based GNC said it would vigorously defend itself and that the claims "are without merit". It alleges that GNC knew of picamilon not being a lawful dietary ingredient as early as May 22, 2007 when GNC Senior Product Manager for Technical Research Jennifer Jakel reviewed the available literature regarding the said synthetic chemical.

A Vitamin Shoppe spokeswoman said the retail chain removed all products containing picamilon from its stores and website "as soon as the FDA declared that picamilon was not a dietary ingredient". Afterwards, an FDA study revealed that 43% of the dietary supplements tested that were labeled as containing AR were "spiked" with BMPEA. The retailer allegedly knew that the supplements were laced with illegal drugs, but chose to continue selling them. In April, the FDA sent letters to five US companies instructing them to immediately cease the manufacture and sale of their products that tested positive for BMPEA.

In fact, insists Oregon assistant attorney general David Hart, any state has the power to work in consumers' interest.

This is not the first problem that GNC has had with this issue. Products containing this chemical are sometimes sold as weight loss or performance enhancing nutritional supplements.

GNC continued to deny that the supplement played any role in the Private's death, but the company paid out $2 million to settle the class-action lawsuit.