At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission joined up to issue joint warning letters to companies making claims to cure, treat or prevent COVID-19. The full list of warning letters can be seen here.
Database swells with CBD warnings
Already this year, another three letters have been added to the database, which now numbers 510 warning letters. All of the 2023 letters were issued to companies selling CBD/hemp products. More than 10 of these kind of warning letters were sent to CBD purveyors in 2022 as well.
The most recent letters were issued to PureCraft LLC, Medical Mikes, Inc. and PharmaCanna. PureCraft is based in San Diego, CA, Medical Mikes has its headquarters in Yorktown Heights, NY, while PharmaCanna is based in Wellington, FL.
The companies were alleged to be making specific disease treatment claims. Some examples cited in the letters are:
- Current research indicates that therapeutic doses of CBD may provide some protection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The purer or higher concentration the CBD, the more effective this intervention seems to be. (PureCraft)
- “This 2020 review of existing research concluded that CBD could control immune responses to cytokines, chemokines, and regulatory cell induction, creating a potential use case for Covid treatment by preventing Cytokine Storms–the condition that transforms standard cases into life-threatening scenarios.” (Medical Mikes)
- "COVID prevention with CBD? Canada study shows it's possible. Might be time to start a daily dose of PharmaCanna's all-natural pharmaceutical grade CBD products.” (PharmaCanna)
Unlike standard warning letters, the COVID variety gives companies only 48 hours to respond with their planned remediation actions. In some cases, the claims cited in the warning letters were lifted from blog posts and other subsidiary material, not from the companies’ websites themselves.
