WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - Stanford University has sent a "cease
and desist" letter to Nu Skin Enterprises Inc asking the company to stop
using a university researcher's name in its advertising, adding new scrutiny to
the skin product maker's business claims and practices.
According to a copy of the letter
emailed to Reuters, Stanford geneticist Stuart Kim is listed as a "Nu Skin
Partner" in developing its ageLOC anti-aging products, though he has
nothing to do with the company. Nu Skin touts its skin creams and pills as
using innovative technology to "reset" genes that promote a more youthful
look and feel for its clients, according to its website.
"Neither Dr. Kim nor
Stanford is a 'Nu Skin Partner,' and neither has anything to do with the
company," states the letter, signed by Steven Rosen from Stanford's Office
of the General Counsel.
Stanford asks Nu Skin to remove
all references to Kim from its website by Friday. Kim told Reuters he had
previously collaborated with Nu Skin but stopped the relationship in 2011, and
that he had never received any money from the company.
The news comes hours after short
seller Andrew Left's Citron Research issued a new report critical of Nu Skin,
saying that the company had misrepresented its relationship with Kim and had
never funded any of his research. Citron also argues that the company's
products could come under greater US regulatory scrutiny.
Shares of the company closed down
4 per cent on Thursday at US$40.82 (S$50.50) on the New York Stock Exchange, as
investors questioned whether it had been misrepresenting the science behind its
anti-aging skin products that make up 40 per cent of sales.
A Stanford spokesman said the
university's dermatology department has a separate, long-standing relationship
with Nu Skin, including a clinical trial in progress.
Nu Skin said its relationship
with Stanford began in 1999. In 2009, it gave US$1.5 million to a study on
human skin aging with Kim and other scientists. Kim later left the study, but
two dermatologists, Dr. Anne Chang and Dr. Alfred Lane, continue to work on the
study, Nu Skin said.
"During the past 13 years,
Nu Skin has funded multiple research studies at Stanford, which have resulted
in papers published around the world," a company spokesperson said.
Citron Research published a
separate report last week, stating that Nu Skin's sales model on mainland
China, the fastest growing market in direct-selling, amounted to an illegal
multi-level marketing scheme. The report sent the company's shares down nearly
10 per cent.
Nu Skin has rejected the
accusation. Chief Financial Officer Ritch Wood said on Wednesday that Nu Skin's
sales model complied with Chinese regulations.
SCIENCE BEHIND THE CLAIMS
On Thursday, Citron also accused
Nu Skin of exaggerating the scientific claims of its anti-aging products and
said that would make them vulnerable to scrutiny by the US Food and Drug
Administration.
In a regulatory filing last week,
Nu Skin said the FDA had recently stopped shipments of the company's Galvanic
Spa facial treatments, which use an electric device to deliver a purifying skin
gel. The agency now believes the product could require clearance as a medical
device. These facial treatments made up less than 1 per cent of revenue in
2011, Nu Skin said.
In a further update on Thursday,
the company said it has stopped all imports of the Galvanic treatments and was
prepared to register the product as a medical device. The FDA clearance could
take 6 to 9 months, the company said.
But Citron Research said FDA
clearance may be required for other Nu Skin ageLOC products, and could
potentially lead to their recall in the United States if the FDA decides they
could be considered drugs.
The FDA treats all products that
make medical claims as drugs, and a company would have to conduct trials to
prove the claims before they could sell their products. Cosmetic products do not
require clinical trials or FDA approval before they are sold.
Nu Skin CFO Wood on Thursday told
analysts at a conference in Boston that the company expects sales of the ageLOC
family of products to reach US$800 million, or roughly 40 per cent of what Wall
Street analysts think the company will take in this year, according to a
webcast of the meeting.
Anna Yukhananov and Phil Wahba
Reuters
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