August 3, 2011
Courthouse News Service
The Securities and Exchange Commission claims the makers of a so-called HIV treatment made from goat's blood bilked investors of $20 million while concealing that the Food and Drug Administration had twice put human trials of the drug on hold.
The SEC says Immunosyn Corp. called its drug SF-1019, and claimed it could treat a variety of diseases, including AIDS, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, diabetic neuropathy and diabetic ulcers.
Immunosyn misinformed investors that its parent company, Argyll Equities, "planned to commence the regulatory approval process for human clinical trials in the U.S.," according to the complaint.
"In fact," the SEC says, "persons affiliated with Argyll had already twice submitted applications to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval of SF-1019, and twice the FDA immediately responded with a full clinical hold on the applications, putting an immediate halt to any possible human clinical trials."
The SEC also sued Immunosyn CEO Stephen Ferrone and CFO Douglas McClain Jr., Argyll CEO James Miceli and Argyll's Chief Science Officer Douglas McClain Sr., who is the father of Immunosyn's CFO.
"These defendants engaged in insider trading by selling Immunosyn shares while in possession of material, nonpublic information that the FDA had issued a full clinical hold on applications for regulatory approval of SF-1019 and while knowing that Immunosyn was making misleading statements about the status of the regulatory process," the SEC says.
McClain Sr. is also accused of misrepresenting the drug's prospects with the FDA on a video on the company's website, and at a presentation at a Texas holistic clinic.
Miceli is accused of ordering the issuance of a false press release that disputed "rumors" that Immunosyn was exploring a change in control.
"In fact, when Immunosyn issued this press release, Miceli [was] actively exploring such a transaction by trying to take the company private," the SEC says.
The SEC seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and fines.
See criminal complaint
Very, very, weird. I never heard of this company before, but I cannot for the life of me think what substance could cure all those random things.
ReplyDeleteI did not post this because of the product. The goat's blood cure has been around for a while. I came across it when writing Denying AIDS. No, it is the investors that interest me. A fool and his money soon go separate ways. Reminds me of David Rasnicks magical cancer diagnostic machine.
ReplyDeleteHow about "Dr." Hulda Clark's ZAPPER? That cured everything from the common cold to AIDS and Cancer. And speaking of a fool parting with their money, many over at AIDSMythExposed.com (now QA.com)said that they had purchased the ZAPPER.
ReplyDeleteThere are other less crazy "cures" out there, but just as worthless. IV Vitamin C, Pro Biotics and Low Dose Naltrexone to name a few currently in vogue.
This goes to show how much you are reaching in trying to maintain relevance here. Goats Blood cure????WTF does that have to do with anything??? I suppose though you have to adopt a seige mentality with the good work Bauer is doing is steadily destroying your precious paradigm. I not ice Snout and Poodle Stomper are steadily removing themselves from the fray and at least they have remained anonymous in this debacle so will skulk back in to the shadows and under the rocks they originally crawled from. DeShong has gone and like you will only be remembered as an idiot. Adios loser.
ReplyDeleteActually, as far as ideas go.... curing AIDS with goat's blood makes more sense than anything Henry Bauer has to say.
ReplyDeleteHow about an example of Henry Bauer making a dent in the science of anything??
Go ahead, make my day.
" I suppose though you have to adopt a seige mentality with the good work Bauer is doing is steadily destroying your precious paradigm."
ReplyDeleteLast time I looked, Henry was busily marketing The Magic Yoghurt Cure For AIDS on behalf of Marco Ruggiero, his wife Stefania Pacini and their good friend Tiziana Punzi.
Yummy.
The "Goats Blood Cure" is completely relevant to this site. This site exposes lies and stupidity of AIDS Denialists and their subsequent conspiracy theories. The fact that you refuse to see and/or admit the relevance is perfectly within your AIDS Denialist bullshit rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteAlso, could you please provide some specific examples of the supposed "good work" Henry Bauer is doing? I need a good laugh.
Ruggiero writes on that blog that he's conducting a clinical trial in the US; the legality of that needs to be investigated as it seems extremely unlikely that he has FDA approval and there is no trial registered in clinical trials.gov. If he's conducting an unregistered trial without the requisite FDA and IRB review and permissions that is a serious violation.
ReplyDelete"This work therefore confirms the intestinal dysbiosis hypothesis of Tony Lance which explains why “AIDS” first appeared as Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, restricted to fast-lane gay men, and why gay men still tend to test “HIV-positive” more frequently than others."
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean gay men eat less yoghurt than other people?
NM, you only need approval to test a pharmaceutical drug not a a food supplement, you know poisonous shit like AZT needs to be properly evaluated, even though it wasn't.
ReplyDeleteAnd why are you so opposed to the trial of something that might do some good?? I don't hear any of you bleat about GSK or Pfizere going in to an unregulated country in Africa and trialling downright dodgy chemicals, is that hypocrisy in action, nothing new there though hey.
Lovey, from the FDA's point of view (and also that of the SEC), a "food supplement" that is promoted "as a treatment, prevention or cure for a specific disease or condition" - even on the internet - is by legal definition considered a pharmaceutical drug and is therefore subject to the same regulatory framework in the US.
ReplyDeleteMany other countries take a similar approach to charlatans who try to bypass therapeutic goods laws by pretending that their quack nostrums are actually menu items.
Goat, anyone?
Now I dunno about you, Lovey, but it seems to me that promoting Mad Marco's Magic Yoghurt as A **CURE** for AIDS sounds a bit like certain therapeutic claims are being made about it, and so you can be pretty certain that the FDA will be very interested in this (hopefully delicious) lacteous confection.
Oh, Snout, that is why I love you so much and the deniers hate you so much: your logic and knowledge puts them in their places every time!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, there have to be such laws. Otherwise, what would stop a drug company from marketing their product as a nutritional supplement instead of a pharmaceutical and thereby avoid the expensive regulation? It's very simple anything marketed to cure a specific disease has to be clinically tested. The only exception is homeopathy, because there are some crazy senators and well-placed lobbyists protecting that loophole.
ReplyDeleteThe standards used to be even stricter. You used to have to prove safety and effectiveness of your product before you could market it, even if you did not make a specific claim. But for some reason, the idea that only difference between a greedy and unscrupulous drug company, and a greedy and unscrupulous supplement company is that one is regulated is a foreign concept.
I agree with notElon. That amount of money is enormous and it could have been used correctly. This incident really can get one's 'goat'.
ReplyDelete