A pharmaceutical company that promoted a milkshake that it said was “clinically proven” to make children grow taller will have to answer in court after being accused of “misleading” marketing by a grandmother.
“[Les laboratoires Abbott ont eu accès à des études qui] have completely disproved any notion that his milkshake could help children grow taller. “The marketing was misleading and Abbott knew it was so,” said James Denlea, the plaintiff’s attorney, according to the New York Post.
On Friday, an American judge in New York City put obstacles in the way of the pharmaceutical company Abbott, which had tried in court to dismiss a lawsuit from a grandmother who accused it of mistakenly misleading its customers about one of its products.
For a year, plaintiff Joanne Noriega complained that she bought the PediaSure Grow & Gain drink (“grow and gain” in French) to help her 8-year-old grandson gain a few inches because he was “small for his age,” the plaintiff told American media.
Except the label's supposedly “clinically proven” product, which was supposed to help children grow taller, instead caused the little one to become “so overweight” that she stopped using it.
However, Judge Paul Engelmayer said the company would have persistently sold its product as a growth-enhancing solution even if it had three self-financed studies in hand that would have come to a different conclusion.
“The existence of studies contradicting the label's claim supports the plausibility of the complaint's assertion that the label would mislead a reasonable consumer,” the district judge wrote, giving the plaintiff the green light, according to the NY Post.
The class action lawsuit, whose total damages have not yet been determined, seeks to bring justice to all New Yorkers who may have been deceived into purchasing the expensive product.