Former U adjunct professor Shawn Talbot will give up $1.12 million in assets to settle Federal Trade Commission charges for his part in the marketing of CortiSlim and CortiStress, dietary supplements for weight loss.
Talbot and others allegedly made false or unsubstantial product claims and used deceptively formatted infomercials to sell the products.
In the summer of 2004, James Graves, dean of the College of Health, and Wayne Askew, chairman of the division of nutrition, reviewed one of Talbot’s CortiSlim infomercials.
“The ad featured Talbot and mentioned his faculty association with the U,” Graves said.
Even though the U was not affiliated with the product promotions, research or development, Graves and Askew worried that consumers would think it was since Talbot mentioned the university.
“It would have been guilt by association,” Askew said.
Askew and Graves then pursued legal advice from the U General Counsel on the propriety of faculty using their position with the U to promote personal and private ventures, Graves said.
“We then asked Talbot not to imply any connection (between) CortiSlim and the U,” he said.
Askew and Graves also advised him to follow the academic model of conducting research through clinical trials to prove the efficacy of his product before making any marketing claims regarding CortiSlim.
“He didn’t say that he wouldn’t (pursue clinical trials), but he didn’t. He just went ahead,” Askew said. “It was a mistake not to.”
Talbot was hired to teach 2000’s Fall Semester class NUTR 5380- Understanding Dietary Supplements- because his academic training and industry experience made him well qualified to teach the course, Graves said.
The course was well received, and students gave Talbot good evaluations. Talbot even wrote the textbook for the class.
However, during the Fall Semester of 2004, it became apparent that Talbot’s association and work with nutritional supplements was in conflict with his position at the U and was bringing adverse publicity to the U.
“Keeping the students’ best interest in mind, a mutual decision was made that Talbot would finish teaching through the semester, but would then resign,” Graves said.
After Talbot’s resignation from the U, the Food and Drug Administration and the FTC reviewed claims about CortiSlim and found that the claims were not substantiated by research and violated permissible claims for dietary supplement.
“He didn’t practice what he preached in class about efficacy, and he got in trouble,” Askew said.
Charges were filed Sept. 20.