Texas Attorney General Sues Fake Antibiotic Distributor
The Texas Attorney General’s Office is suing two American companies for distributing products falsely advertised as antibiotics that were marketed primarily to Spanish speakers in the U.S.
After an Austin hospital alerted authorities that pediatric patients had been given fake antibiotics, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) issued a warning and opened an investigation.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office is suing two American companies for distributing products falsely advertised as antibiotics that were marketed primarily to Spanish speakers in the U.S.
After an Austin hospital alerted authorities that pediatric patients had been given fake antibiotics, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) issued a warning and opened an investigation.
The products were sold as dietary supplements with names that mimicked those of common antibiotics and were marketed primarily to Spanish speaking consumers with packaging in both Spanish and English.
The lawsuit filed on Thursday, May 5th, 2011 in state district court, claims that the companies were purposefully obfuscating the nature of their product by packaging the product in a similar way as that of the antibiotic Amoxicillin, reports the Associated Press.
On Friday, May 6th, the state obtained a temporary restraining order against San Martin Distributing Inc. of Houston, TX and against Multimex Distributions Inc., of Lawrenceville, GA, seeking civil penalties of up to $20,000 per violation.