The Deadman helps out PFT

[Walking Deadman]

I've said it a few times that I'm a big fan of Pro Football Talk, and I know that some of you here are rolling your eyes when PFT is mentioned, but I just wanted to brag that I think I helped PFT with a column (read below):

from PFT:

http://www.profootballtalk.com/category/rumor-mill/

STARCAPS PULLS THE PLUG

Posted by Mike Florio on October 30, 2008, 1:16 p.m.

As it turns out, it was wise for Saints guard Jamar Nesbit to get his lawsuit filed against the manufacturer of StarCaps. Because the move might have given Nesbit a better place in line to get a piece of the company’s assets via the seemingly inevitable bankruptcy proceeding.

Though no bankruptcy case has been filed (yet), the company that makes StarCaps has suspended further shipments of the weight-loss product.

“We’ve received notice of the problem with the NFL,” the company said in a statement e-mailed to the St. Paul Pioneer Press and other media outlets. “We have referred the matter to our counsels and are taking all necessary steps to ensure that our customers receive product that is safe and effective. We have temporarily suspended shipping pending the result of our investigation.”

The investigation apparently will focus on whether StarCaps contains Bumetanide. For starters, we suggest that the company’s “counsels” consider the November 2007 report from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which concluded that Bumetanide is present in StarCaps.

As further proof of the current state of disarry within the StarCaps family, the product’s official web site now consists of a solid blue screen containing only the words “UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE THE SALE OF STARCAPS IS SUSPENDED.”

It’s rare that a company charged with civil liability says anything other than “we will defend vigorously against these frivolous claims.” The fact that the company is shuttering the operation and “investigating” a matter about which it knew or should have known can fairly be regarded as a classic ”oh sh-t” moment in American corporate history.

Our guess is that the folks who made this stuff knew all along that Bumetanide was present. But they apparently decided to sell as much of it as they could under false pretenses, and now that the excess bodily water is hitting the fan via the suspensions of several NFL players who have been taking StarCaps, it looks like the company will simply pull up the stakes and disappear.

If our suspicions are accurate, then this is a situation that calls for the intervention of federal authorities. If the Department of Justice can cook up a legal theory to put the Whizzinator guys behind bars, the United States’ in-house legal department surely can fashion an air-tight criminal complaint in this case, too.

Then my reply on the PFT website:

"Walking Deadman says:

October 30th, 2008 at 2:22 pm

Mike,

as far as I know Bumex or Bumetanide is a prescription only diurectic.

Thus, the FDA and the feds should be arresting and fining this corporation for dispensing a Rx med. without a prescription. "

Then not much later:

PROBLEMS MULTIPLY FOR STARCAPS

Posted by Mike Florio on October 30, 2008, 3:18 p.m. EDT

Thankfully, many (if not most) of our readers are smarter than us. A couple of them pointed out that the manufacturers of StarCaps are facing huge potential problems if (as has been reported as early as last November) that StarCaps contains Bumetanide.

Bumetanide is an FDA-regulated drug, which cannot be dispensed without a prescription. So, basically, the folks selling StarCaps on an over-the-counter basis were (if Bumetanide is in StarCaps) blatantly violating federal law.

(The folks who make the Bumetanide that was making its way into StarCaps might also have some explaining to do.)

As another reader who knows more about bankruptcy law than I do (and that’s not saying much) pointed out, the fact that Saints guard Jamar Nesbit has already filed suit won’t make much of a difference, since the mere existence of unresolved litigation won’t give Nesbit priority over the so-called unsecured creditors.

So hey, I became a source......pretty cool, wonder if JLC needs some help?

[SWFLSkins]

So hey, I became a source......pretty cool, wonder if JLC needs some help?

__________________

Wow, you must be the first legit source PFT has ever used, did they verify your info?

[Walking Deadman]

So hey, I became a source......pretty cool, wonder if JLC needs some help?

__________________

Wow, you must be the first legit source PFT has ever used, did they verify your info?

not sure, but I double checked myself and have some knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry .