UPJOHN FAILED TO SHOW "POTENTIAL HARM" FROM ANTI-BALDNESS PRODUCTS

Executive Summary

UPJOHN FAILED TO SHOW "POTENTIAL HARM" FROM ANTI-BALDNESS PRODUCTS Helsinki Formula and New Generation, a Las Vegas District Court judge ruled Feb. 10. The decision denies Upjohn's request for a preliminarily injunction against advertising for the two products. In his decision, Judge Lloyd George said that Rogaine topical minoxidil marketer Upjohn could not show the court that its prescription hair growth product would be irreparably injured by ads for the two mail-order anti-baldness treatments. Upjohn had filed suit against Helsinki Formula marketer Pantron I and New Generation marketer California Pacific Research in October in Reno and Las Vegas District Courts, respectively. The validity of the companies hair growth/hair loss preventions was not addressed by the ruling. However, the future of ads for Helsinki Formula and New Generation remains uncertain. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is awaiting judges' decisions on its request that ads for the products be preliminarily enjoined for being false and deceptive. The FTC charged in Reno District Court Nov. 14 that California Pacific Research claims that its New Generation product "reduces excessive hair loss" and other hair growth claims were false. A week prior to that, the commission filed similar charges against Pantron I in federal court in Las Vegas. Hearings were held Feb. 13 in the New Generation case and Feb. 22 in the Pantron case. The judges have not yet weighed in with their decisions.