Invega Sustenna Lawsuit

A product with the trade name Invega Substina sustenna is alleged by the FDA to contain the unapproved ingredient of mercury. The complaint lists other potential contaminants in the product, including lead and gluten. You can imagine how this has affected the Invega Substina litigation as well. The company has moved to exclude mercury from distribution. The European Union has done the same.

If the company is allowed to market these products in the US, they will face a number of challenges.

For one thing, FDA regulations currently prohibit the use of certain ingredients in cosmetics and health products. The problem for Invega is that all of their products are “cosmeceutical” in nature. They are primarily sold for cosmetic improvement, rather than treat patients with medical conditions.

Cosmetic manufacturers are not held accountable for the claims on their labels. So far, there has been no determination of liability. There are, however, severe restrictions on the types of cosmetics that can be sold. Most companies have to rely on what they label as the basis for liability.

One company in particular, Unilever, had a whole line of cosmetics that contained the ingredient TDI (triethanolamine) in large amounts.

The ingredient has been deemed unsafe for direct skin application. The company has since removed TDI from the products it sells. That leaves you with Invega Substina.

Now, for the rest of the story. What happens next? We have the manufacturers stating that they believe that they will prevail on the courts if the plaintiff’s complaint is ruled in their favor. Naturally, they would rather avoid a trial and pay a small settlement than having the plaintiff wins the case. What happens then?

Well, what happens next is a bit strange. The company tries to get out of the lawsuit by pointing out that the ingredients in the product were deemed safe under the law as of July of 2021. At that point, there was no requirement for a warning about the potential hazards of the product. Now, if there was ever a warning about that particular ingredient, it must have been prominently displayed somewhere on the packaging.

So, why did they wait until the law changed?

There is a good reason that they waited until after the law was changed. It would have been difficult for them to put the product on the market and have it pulled after the class action suit was filed. In fact, they probably felt that they were better off to let the courts decide the safety issue than for them to be forced into a courtroom and deal with a multitude of legal issues.

On the other hand, the company does not admit any wrongdoing or liability. They simply say that they are not responsible if anyone suffers an injury or damages from their product. This argument is somewhat weak at best. It could be that the company simply lacks the money to invest in a lawsuit that they know they will lose. If so, why aren’t they fund this lawsuit?

Another weak argument is that they simply do not care.

That is, they say that they believe in their product and believe in the efficacy of it. However, there have been numerous studies done that showed that the main ingredient in Invega sustenance did nothing for these people. These studies were done using lab animals and people of different ages. So, at least one scientist believes that they may be ineffective.

This lawsuit is not just about Invega. There are other brands of detox products on the market as well that use a similar manufacturing process. So, this case has been about more than just Invega. In fact, it has been about the lack of safety information and the lack of efficacy of these products. That is why this lawsuit has spanned both companies. It has also spanned the globe, because the plaintiff’s home state of Georgia is the principal plaintiff in this case.

Now that the product has been shut down, there is only one thing for the company to do.

They are now legally required to pay the plaintiff’s fees and damages. This means that they will not be able to make any more false claims about their product. If they do, they face steep fines. Hopefully this will bring the company back into a position to continue to develop products that really work.

This is not the end of the story, however. There are many more lawsuits that have been filed against Invega. If Invega wants to retain its current spot in the market, they are going to have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that their products do what they claim. Otherwise, they can lose their entire customer base. Whether or not they win their first few lawsuits will be the bigger factor in their long-term survival.