The FTC was.............'early' in it's ruling.

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The earlier Geritol liquid formulation was advertised as "twice the iron in a pound of calf's liver," and daily doses contained about 50–100 milligrams of iron as ferric ammonium citrate.

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if necessary. Male teenagers ages 14 to 18 need 11 milligrams of iron per day, while female teenagers ages 14 to 18 need 15 milligrams of iron per day. Women ages 19 to 50 need 18 milligrams of iron per day, while men ages 19 and over and women ages 51 and over need only 8 milligrams per day.

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Federal Trade Commission investigation[edit]

Geritol was the subject of years of investigation starting in 1959 by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In 1965, the FTC ordered the makers of Geritol to disclose that Geritol would relieve symptoms of tiredness only in persons who suffer from iron deficiency anemia, and that the vast majority of people who experience such symptoms do not have such a deficiency.

Geritol's claims were discredited in court findings as "conduct amounted to gross negligence and bordered on recklessness," ruled as a false and misleading claim, and heavily penalized with fines totaling $812,000 ($4,335,739 in 2015 dollars),[7] the largest FTC fine up to that date (1973).[8][9]

Although subsequent trials and appeals from 1965 to 1973 concluded that some of the FTC demands exceeded its authority, Geritol was already well known and continued to be the largest U.S. company selling iron and B vitamin supplement through 1979.

Since then, supplemental iron products, including Geritol, have been contraindicated because of concerns over hemochromatosis,[10][11] and serious questions raised in studies for men, postmenopausal women, and nonanemic patients with liver disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, or cancer .[12][13]

History[edit]

Geritol was introduced as an alcohol-based, iron and B vitamin tonic by Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in August 1950 and primarily marketed as such into the 1970s. Geritol was folded into Pharmaceuticals' 1957 acquisition of J. B. Williams Co., founded in 1885.[3] J. B. Williams Co. was later bought out by Nabisco in 1971. In 1982, the Geritol product name was acquired by the multinational pharmaceutical firm Beecham (later GlaxoSmithKline).[4] Geritol was acquired by Meda Pharmaceutical in 2011.[5] Meda was acquired by Mylan in 2016.[6]

The earlier Geritol liquid formulation was advertised as "twice the iron in a pound of calf's liver," and daily doses contained about 50–100 milligrams of iron as ferric ammonium citrate. The Geritol tonic also contained about 12% alcohol and some B vitamins.

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