Abbott Labs must face lawsuit over PediaSure height claims

 A judge has rejected Abbott Laboratories' effort to dismiss a New York City grandmother's lawsuit claiming it misled consumers into believing its PediaSure Grow & Gain nutrition drinks were "clinically proven" to help children grow taller.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan said on Friday that Joanne Noriega's complaint set forth "strong, evidence-backed reasons" to doubt Abbott's claim that clinical studies supported its marketing claims.

Noriega cited three studies funded by Abbott itself that found no connection between PediaSure and growth in height.

"The existence of studies contradicting the label's claim reinforce the plausibility of the complaint's allegation that the label would mislead a reasonable consumer," Engelmayer wrote.

"This case is without merit," Abbott said in a statement on Saturday, adding that PediaSure is a scientifically designed nutrition solution for children to help support growth and development.

Noriega, from Bronx, New York, said she had bought PediaSure Grow & Gain vanilla and strawberry drinks for her 8-year-old grandson, who was "short for his age," believing they would help him get taller. She said that after a year of drinking two PediaSure drinks per day, her grandson was still short but had become "so overweight" that she stopped buying the drinks.

James Denlea, a lawyer for Noriega, said in an interview he was pleased with the decision, which lets his client gather more evidence through the discovery process.

Abbott had access to studies that "completely debunked any notion that its milkshake could help children grow," Denlea said. "The marketing was misleading, and Abbott knew that to be the case."

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for New Yorkers who were deceived into buying or overpaying for PediaSure.

Abbott has said PediaSure is intended for children ages 2 to 13, and helps them "grow out of at-risk weight-for-height percentiles (5th-25th percentiles)" within eight weeks.

PediaSure is part of the Abbott Park, Illinois-based company's pediatric nutritional segment, which also includes Pedialyte and Similac.

The case is Noriega v Abbott Laboratories, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 23-04014.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/abbott-labs-must-face-lawsuit-232235731.html

'Biden can't beat the MAGA meme machine online, Clyburn says'

 President Joe Biden’s reelection bid won't be won by million-dollar ad buys or social media sound bites, says U.S. Representative James Clyburn, the man who was key to Biden’s 2020 win.

Republican candidate Donald Trump’s supporters have built a “MAGA wall” online of memes and social media noise that is overwhelming news about Biden’s economic and policy wins, making it impossible to get Democrats’ message across, Clyburn said in a recent interview in his hometown of Columbia, South Carolina.

Clyburn, who at 83 is arguably the most influential Black political voice in the United States, says Biden's campaign needs to focus more attention on building a historic ground game filled with "voices and validators" who can energize voters and combat a looming disinformation campaign."If we are going to be successful in this campaign, we are going to have to have what I call hand-to-hand combat, boots on the ground. We are going to have to do what is necessary to circumvent, or smash through that MAGA wall that is being built on sound bites,” Clyburn said, referring to the acronym for Trump's Make America Great Again slogan.

Asked for comment, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, "Crooked Joe Biden and his allies are scared because they know that no amount of excuses can explain away four years of misery and destruction under their watch."

Biden is projected to cruise to victory in Saturday's South Carolina primary election, the first officially sanctioned contest in the Democratic nomination race. He is expected to face Trump in November in a rematch of the 2020 election.

Four years ago, Clyburn effectively resuscitated Biden's struggling presidential campaign with an endorsement that gave the candidate a comeback primary election victory in South Carolina.

The congressman's call for an unprecedented ground game - which includes enlisting people to knock on doors and speak at social gatherings - underscores his deep concerns about a looming widespread disinformation campaign.

It also reflects broader concerns over whether Biden, 81, has the skills and charisma needed to sell the public on his accomplishments and the economy. The president spent last summer touring the country to boast about his economic accomplishments, but voters still give him poor marks on the economy.

“So when people tell me what a bad communicator Joe Biden has been, I say to them, don't confuse goodness with weakness. These are people who basically want to hear a sound bite that makes for a good headline, but that sound bite seldom makes good headway. And Joe Biden is all about making headway,” Clyburn said.

The South Carolina congressman, one several Biden campaign co-chairs, is part of a small group of Democrats that include Barack Obama who are urging Biden to ramp up his campaign efforts and take a more offensive posture against Trump.

The campaign has begun heeding those calls, with Biden invoking Trump much more often and top staffers leaving the White House to bolster the campaign.

Clyburn said he advised the Biden campaign to look at how former Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney, a white Democrat, won two terms in a majority Black city in 2015 and 2019.

“It was boots on the ground. He won that race from door to door,” Clyburn said.

During a recent dinner celebrating South Carolina's rise to the top of the Democratic Party's nominating calendar, Clyburn offered evidence of the power of what he calls validators. In the cadence of a pastor, Clyburn preached to the crowd of largely Black supporters about Biden's accomplishments, often speaking in the local parlance of someone who has spent eight decades in the region.

When Biden took the stage, he quipped: “If I were smart, I’d say thank you and leave. Jim made the case for me better than I can."

https://news.yahoo.com/biden-cant-beat-maga-meme-110623979.html