GlycoFlex Class Action Claims Canine Joint Supplements Are Falsely Advertised as ‘Clinically Proven’

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A proposed class action alleges the GlycoFlex Plus and GlycoFlex Stage 3 canine joint supplements sold by VetriScience Laboratories are falsely advertised as “clinically proven” to treat all joint problems in dogs and provide an up to 41-percent boost in hind leg strength in “just 4 weeks.”

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The 27-page GlycoFlex lawsuit against manufacturer FoodScience LLC, which does business as VetriScience Labs, alleges the company has never clinically tested the canine supplement and that the product has been examined in only a self-described “pilot study” in 2006 that focused on just seven dogs subjected to “an artificial, surgical and chemically induced ‘stable stifle [osteoarthritis model].’”

The dogs in the so-called pilot study were artificially “made lame,” as though they suffered from osteoarthritis, and then administered GlycoFlex, the suit alleges. Ultimately, the study found that only three of the seven dogs “had a significant improvement in lameness,” with an average 41-percent increase in hind leg strength, while the majority of the subjects “had no significant increase in hind leg strength,” the complaint contends.

According to the lawsuit, VetriScience’s “clinically proven” claim is “demonstrably false” given that no clinical study has been done, the company misrepresented what the small pilot study found, and VetriScience hid the fact that the study focused only on GlycoFlex’s purported effect on osteoarthritis, and not all canine joint issues.

“No reputable researcher would claim that a positive result in only three of seven animals indicates anything about the efficacy of the treatment, much less that it proves an efficacy claim,” the suit scathes.

To make matters worse, the case continues, VetriScience “never believed” its own clinically proven marketing claim, as the company apparently waited eight years after the 2006 pilot study to “timidly claim in 2014” that GlycoFlex was clinically researched. Yet in 2018, the suit says, VetriScience “threw all caution and honesty to the wind” when it claimed that the 2006 study in fact clinically proved that GlycoFlex was effective at treating all canine joint issues.

“Obviously, if VetriScience believed that claim, it would have made it soon after the 2006 Pilot Study,” the complaint argues.

The suit stresses that the National Advertising Division of BBB National Programs has repeatedly asserted that representations concerning a product’s apparent efficacy being “clinically proven” must closely match underlying scientific evidence, as such a claim “conveys an especially strong message to consumers.”

“The title of the study obviously admits that it is pilot study, not a clinical study, and the omission of ‘A Pilot Study’ from its reference in the marketing of GlycoFlex is materially misleading in and of itself. A pilot study cannot be used to claim it proves anything.”

Further still, the case points out that osteoarthritis, the condition at the center of the pilot study, is not the only kind of joint problem a dog can suffer and is not even the most common canine joint problem.

Consumers looking to help treat and minimize their dogs’ joint issues are “particularly vulnerable targets for unscrupulous manufacturers and advertisers,” the case emphasizes. In a crowded marketplace rife with joint-health dog products, being able to convince consumers about the efficacy of supplements is critical, the suit reads.

The GlycoFlex lawsuit looks to cover all consumers who, within the applicable statute of limitations period, bought in New York any of the following products marketed, distributed and/or sold by VetriScience:

• GlycoFlex Plus chews for Small Dogs in bacon, peanut butter and duck flavors;
• GlycoFlex Plus chews for Medium and Large Dogs in bacon, peanut butter and duck flavors;
• GlycoFlex Plus chewable tablets;
• GlycoFlex Stage 3 chews; and/or
• GlycoFlex Stage 3 chewable tablets.

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