Medicine: The Word

For almost 16 years, a bitter battle has raged between Carter Products, Inc. and the Federal Trade Commission over one word: liver. The FTC first tried in 1943 to get the “Liver”‘ dropped from Carter’s Little Liver Pills. The pills, said the agency, did not help a sluggish liver, would not necessarily relieve that ”worn-out, sluggish, allin, listless, tired, stuffy, cranky, peevish, bogged-down” feeling. After 142 hearings in six cities (and 11,000 pages of testimony), the FTC issued a cease-and-desist order, only to have it tossed out by the U.S. Court of Appeals. After an appeal to the Supreme Court, which ordered further hearings, the FTC tried again in 1956. The pills, compounded chiefly of podophyllin (resin of dried root of the mayapple plant) and aloes (dried juice of the aloe plant), still do not stimulate liver bile, said the FTC.

Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld the FTC finding that Carter’s basic therapeutic claim is “false and misleading,” ordered “Liver” deleted from the trade name. Carter Products announced that it would appeal to the Supreme Court, continue the case that has already cost taxpayers more than $1,000,000.