Loren asks Lucida to dismantle her billboards

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Loren Legarda  asked  the distributor of Lucida DS, a skin whitening supplement, of which she is an image model, to explain to the public the adverse findings of the Bureau of Food and Drugs against the whitening  product.

Legarda also “formally demanded”  that United Shelter dismantle within 24 hours her billboards as the product endorser of Lucida-DS.

This is in the light of a BFAD order issued against the product Lucida-DS where it was found to contain less than the 500 mg. glutathione content contrary to literature on the labels.

Legarda, who said earlier her lawyers and staff checked the quality of the product before she endorsed it, said she would not tolerate misrepresentation of facts by any importer, distributor or manufacturer of consumer products that would tend to deceive the consumer.

The senator said she was paid to endorse the product but donated her talent  fee to charity.

It was ABS-CBN chief correspondent Korina Sanchez who first exposed the findings of the Philippine Institute of Pure and Applied Chemistry that the glutathione content of some skin-whitening products, among them Lucida-DS and its sister- product, Vaniderm, was not  500 mg.

Based on the PIPAC report, the two products’ glutathione contents were 4.5 mg. for Lucida-DS and 5.4 mg. for Vaniderm.

The BFAD ordered an investigation and decided to recall certain batches of three brands containing insufficient amounts of glutathione. Glutalife was the third brand.

BFAD said the recall must be done in the interest of public welfare.

The BFAD did not say, however, if it would file charges against manufacturers and distributors of products that were found to be deceptive and ineffective.