Elixir Industry Participates In ERSP Forum

New York, NY – September 13, 2005 – The Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program (ERSP) announced that Elixir Industry, marketers of the EZorb Calcium Supplement (EZorb) has substantiated general product performance claims and agreed to modify future specific performance, safety, testimonial, and comparative claims. The marketer’s online advertising was reviewed pursuant to ERSP’s ongoing monitoring program.

ERSP, the electronic direct-response industry’s self-regulatory forum supervised by the National Advertising Review Council (NARC), asked Elixir Industry to provide substantiation for core claims in the advertising for EZorb, including:

• “…unprecedented 92% calcium absorption rate is up to 20 times higher than that of any other calcium supplements…”
• “Helped thousands recover from rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, back pain, hip problems and other joint disorders.”
• “My blood pressure is also down. I don’t have breathing problems any more.”
• “No known side effects”

ERSP determined that the evidence in the case record does not support comparative claims made in the EZorb Calcium Supplement advertising. Moreover, although the testing does support isolated performance improvements in calcium deficient disorders, the lack of specific testing on the product as packaged does not support all of the specific performance claims. ERSP did note that the sales data provided by Elix ir Industry provided sufficient support for its claim that EZorb “Helped thousands recover f rom rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, back pain, hip problems and other joint disorders.” ERSP agreed that the addition of disclosure language to the consumer testimonials will assist in clarifying typical results, but also determined that the testimonials must reflect the typical product performance. ERSP also determined that the marketer’s claim that EZorb has “no known side effects” was supported but that it could not substantiate its more specific safety claim regarding stomach disorders and kidney stones.

In response to the ERSP decision, Elixir Industry stated that it “…respectfully disagrees with some of the … conclusions of ERSP, it nevertheless agrees, in the interest of consumer confidence, to take ERSP’s recommendations into consideration and appropriately modify its future advertising.”