Agreement on labels of Centrum supplements

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WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- Pfizer Consumer Healthcare and the U.S. Center for Science in the Public Interest said they negotiated an agreement on labeling for some Centrum supplements.

Steve Gardner, litigation director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the agreement announced Thursday meant his group would not move ahead with a lawsuit it had planned to file against Pfizer.

"In our view, labels for Centrum Ultra Women's and Centrum Silver Women's multivitamin supplements stated those products supported 'breast health,' while labels for Centrum Ultra Men's and Centrum Silver Ultra Men's stated those products supported 'colon health,'" Gardner said in a statement. "Those claims of breast and colon health implied that the supplements would prevent breast and colon cancer -- disease prevention claims that supplement manufacturers can't legally make."

Centrum said in, part, that the presence of vitamin D in all of those products were the basis for those claims, Gardner said.

"For many consumers, a daily multivitamin is an inexpensive insurance policy to make sure that one's getting the recommended daily amounts of important vitamins and minerals," Gardner said. "On labels and advertising for Centrum products that bear a claim for 'heart health,' Pfizer Consumer Healthcare would add clarifying language that the products are 'not a replacement for cholesterol-lowering drugs.'"

Centrum products saying they provide an energy boost, would now say they help support metabolic function, Gardner said.

"Although Pfizer disagrees with our position, we are pleased with the collaborative spirit with which Pfizer was willing to discuss our concerns and resolve them without resorting to litigation," Gardner said.