CVS Health Infants’ Acetaminophen Misleads Parents to Pay More Class Action

CVS Pharmacy has a private brand of medicines called CVS Health. Among its products are CVS Health Infants’ Pain & Fever Acetaminophen and Children’s Pain & Fever Acetaminophen. The packaging for the Infants’ product misleads parents, the complaint for this class action says, “into thinking that the Infants’ Product is specially-formulated … to make it specifically appropriate for infants as opposed to older children.” This is deceptive, the complaint alleges, “because CVS charges substantially more for its Infants’ Product—up to six times as much per ounce—than for its Children’s Product.

The Nationwide Class for this action is all persons who bought the CVS Health Infants’ product for personal use and not for resale in the US. A California Subclass has also been defined for those who bought the Infants’ product in California.

The complaint says, “Giving a child too much acetaminophen can be dangerous and even fatal, a problem that terrifies parents and causes them to be extra careful when buying medicine for their young children and babies.”

According to the complaint, “The front of a box of the Infants’ Product contains representations (the product name and photo of a parent holding up a small child) which are likely to deceive consumers into believing the Infants’ Product is specially formulated for infants or otherwise unique for infants.”

In former times, the formulas for Infants’ acetaminophen products were different than for Children’s products. The Infants’ formula was more concentrated, so that parents only needed to get a few drops into an infants’ mouth with a syringe. The Infants’ medicines contained a concentration of 80 mg per 0.8 mL or 80 mg per 1 mL, while the Children’s medicines had a concentration of 160 mg per 5 mL.

However, the complaint says, “The different concentrations caused some consumers to accidentally provide the wrong dosage of medicine to their children, causing them to overdose.”

“Between 2000 and 2009,” the complaint claims, the FDA received reports of twenty (20) children dying from acetaminophen toxicity, and at least three (3) deaths were tied directly to mix-ups involving the two pediatric medicines.”

In 2011, manufacturers discontinued the stronger formulas and made the Infants’ products the same strength as the Children’s products. According to the complaint, “Since then, the only difference in acetaminophen products marketed for infants and children … has been the price and the plastic dosing instrument included with the product.” This is usually a syringe for infants and a cup for children.

At this point, the complaint alleges, “CVS has been engaging in the unfair, unlawful and deceptive practice of manufacturing, marketing and selling its store brand pediatric acetaminophen as two separate products…, such that parents mistakenly believe they must purchase the more expensive Infants’ Product for their infants.”

The complaint alleges violation of consumer protection laws, among other things.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Deceptive Advertising, Deceptive Labels, Different Price for Same Products