Bay Area prosecutors sue diet-drug company

District attorneys from Alameda, Marin, San Francisco and five other California counties sued the maker of a dietary supplement on Monday, claiming the company's marketing exaggerates the product's results and underplays its danger.

The suit -- also joined by the San Diego City Attorney and filed in Napa County Superior Court -- says New Jersey-based Cytodyne Technologies Inc. and its president and CEO, Robert Chinery, broke California's false advertising and unfair business practice laws in marketing Xenadrine RFA-1, a dietary supplement containing ephedra.

The same diet pills recently were linked to the death of 23-year-old Baltimore Orioles pitching prospect Steve Bechler.

Chinery issued a news release later Monday saying his company "confidently stands behind the efficacy of its products and the truthfulness of our advertising claims. 

"Xenadrine RFA-1 has been the subject of seven medically-supervised clinical trials, each of which has demonstrated that the product is safe and effective when used as directed. More than 20 million people have purchased our product and have lost weight," Chinery said, adding his company years ago provided San Francisco prosecutors with "significant medical evidence" to back its ads. "It's not a coincidence that at this time the prosecutors have decided to file these allegations, given the current sensationalized climate surrounding ephedra."

The lawsuit claims the company made inflated claims unsupported by scientific evidence about the product's efficacy in weight loss, preserving muscle tone, increasing strength and endurance, and burning fat safely without loss of muscle tone.

For example, the company allegedly claimed the product has been clinically proven to increase fat loss by "an astounding 17 times" more than diet and exercise alone.

The lawsuit also claims the defendants failed to disclose links between ephedra and problems such as high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, seizures, stroke, heart attack and death.

The prosecutors are seeking an injunction to stop the company from making these allegedly illegal claims, and fines of up to $5,000 for each deceptive advertisement or unfair business practice.

Another civil lawsuit against Cytodyne -- a class action filed in 2001 by La Jolla pilot Jason Park -- went to trial last week in San Diego Superior Court. The trial, which claims the company manipulated data from clinical research studies to paint a false picture of the product's benefits and safety, is expected to take several weeks.