Media Advisory: Watchdogs Call on Shoppers Drug Mart to Remove Ineffective Homeopathic Treatments

Click below for our Open Letter to Shoppers Drug Mart

Click below for a pdf copy of our Media Advisory 

MEDIA ADVISORY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Watchdogs Call on Shoppers Drug Mart to Remove Ineffective Homeopathic Treatments

Toronto, ON—(January 20, 2012)—Last week, CBC’s Marketplace investigated dubious claims made by the manufacturers of Cold-FX, Canada’s most popular cold remedy.  But Cold-FX is not the only suspect cold and flu remedy marketed to Canadians.  

In an open letter sent today, the Centre for Inquiry’s Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism (CASS) called on Shoppers Drug Mart to stop selling ineffective homeopathic cold and flu remedies.  These remedies – including Boiron’s popular Oscillococcinium brand – involve the repeated dilution of supposed active ingredients to such a degree that there is literally nothing left of those ingredients after the dilution procedure.  No active ingredients means no possible pharmacological activity, and yet these treatments are marketed as effective cold and flu remedies.  

“It is unethical for pharmacists to knowingly sell ineffective health products,” said CASS Researcher Steve Livingston. “Pharmacists we contacted were aware that homeopathic products generally contain nothing but inert ingredients like sugar pills or distilled water.  Yet Shoppers Drug Mart still places these products on their shelves, quite often adjacent to proven treatments.  Combined with misleading advertising and product packaging, Canadians may buy an expensive and ineffective placebo when what they really need is science-based medicine.”

CASS is calling on Shoppers Drug Mart to put their customers’ health ahead of corporate profits, and to cease selling products that make unproven health claims.

The open letter can be found at the link below.

About Us: 

The Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism critically engages with scientific, technological and medical claims made in public discourse. We address factual inaccuracies and misinformation in public debates by promoting evidence-based science. CASS is a subset of CFI. CFI is the leading freethought organization in Canada promoting reason, science, secularism and freedom of inquiry.

Contact 

Iain Martel, Co-Chair and Spokesperson

Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism

(416) 929-5075

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