US senator, Charles Schumer, has urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to remove ‘sunscreen pills’ — which promise SPF-like protection — from the market before the summer season starts.
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The FDA had recently sent warning letters to some companies marketing these ‘sunscreen pills’ asking them to rethink their marketing strategies. Additionally, FDA commissioner, Dr Scott Gottlieb, released a statement highlighting the agency’s actions to protect public health safety in relation to the unproven claims being made by these companies.
However, this is not enough, according to Schumer who is pushing for the offending pills and capsules to be taken from both online and retail marketplaces immediately.
“The FDA should be burning mad at the handful of companies marketing shady pills and capsules as a new alternative to long-tested SPF sun protection,” he said. “Failing to effectively rein in these marketing attempts would be a glaring error by the FDA and so they must turn up the enforcement heat before consumers literally get burned. While an agency warning is a good step, it might not be enough to force the necessary marketing changes that are still fuelling summer sales, like on Instagram. So, I am urging the FDA to consider the timing of these companies’ claims as it relates to when consumers are most likely to purchase these pills and go beyond a warning by pulling them from the marketplace entirely until the offending firms clean up their act.”
The products that the FDA have issued warnings about are: Advanced Skin Brightening Formula, Sunsafe Rx, Solaricareand Sunergetic