Allergan skin cream uses human foreskin growth factors that could cause tumors, legal complaint alleges

Monday, April 21, 2014 by: PF Louis
Tags: Allergan, skin cream, foreskin growth factors

(NaturalNews) Consumer-rights law firm Hagens Berman (HB) has filed a class action suit with Josette Ruhnke as the named plaintiff against Allergan, the new owner of SkinMedica. The focus of the suit is with the potential health risks from SkinMedica's proprietary human growth factor solution derived from human foreskins.

SkinMedica's use of growth factors bio-engineered from foreskins is widespread for short-term patching remedies of burn cases and the cosmeceutical (combining pharmaceutical and cosmetic) industry.

SkinMedica may be the most high-profile, as it has been promoted by celebrities Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters. Its Tissue Nutrient System (TNS) with human growth factors (HGF) is promoted as able to help skin rejuvenate and promote new elastic growth on a cellular level.

Josette Ruhnke's complaint is that by creating new cell growth there is the possibility of initiating malignant cancerous growth. Although SkinMedica's promotional literature points out that there have been no adverse effects reported with similar biotechnology for skin burn repair, questioning its safety is valid.

The burn treatments are drastically needed short-term interventions, while using a cosmeceutical skin cream with lab-created HGF substances daily over the long term is very questionable. The cancer risk is not the only potential health risk. Increased collagen production induced artificially can result in scarring, for example.

SkinMedica should be FDA approved with potential danger warnings on the label

The lawsuit states, "SkinMedica wrongly pronounces that TNS products do not require FDA approval. Because TNS products are drug products being sold without FDA approval, and because SkinMedica does not provide mandatory and important product labeling information (as required by the FDA and California DPH [Department of Health] for such products), they are misbranded."

The suit alleges that, in marketing their TNS products, Allergan and its subsidiary SkinMedica did not adequately disclose the health risks associated with these growth factors. So the suit is demanding punitive damages and wants the defendants enjoined from selling the products without full disclosure of safety concerns and without government approvals.

You won't find foreskins as part of the ingredients in SkinMedica or any other skin cream that uses HGF substances, as they are not directly part of the cream or lotion. The foreskins are used as part of the cultures to create synthetic HGF (human growth factor) ingredients.

What may appear on ingredient labels are Tissue Nutrient Solution, or TNS, human collagen or human fibroblast, which provides the skin's structural matrix.

Although the body produces HGFs in small amounts at the right locations and the right times, synthetically derived growth factors are too large to penetrate the skin, according to Dr. Donald R. Owen. He goes on to say that, despite the obvious complications, cosmetic chemists still use them.

Drs. H. Ray Jailan, MD, and Jenny Kim, MD, PhD, offered, "Whether the TGF-B and other growth factors contained in cosmeceuticals are stable, can be absorbed adequately, or exert a functionally significant outcome to induce dermal remodeling and reverse photoaging [wrinkles] is unclear since well-controlled clinical studies are lacking."

The circumcision aspect

More are opting out of the barbarism of circumcising their newborn baby boys, because the benefits are overrated and the activity is painful. Connecting that with any religious belief is a stretch.

The beneficiaries of circumcision now include the medical burn treatment and cosmetic industry, not the circumcised boy.

This technology for burn victims has merit. But smoothing wrinkles for those who can't accept growing old or didn't take care of themselves to minimize aging effects is, well, merely cosmetic.

The cost for circumcising is between $200 and $300. Hospitals passing that paid-for foreskin to the cosmetic industry for a profit is like adding insult to injury.

Sources for this article include:

An invitation to the class action suit:
http://www.hbsslaw.com

The home of the "Cosmetic Cop," Paula Begoun:
http://www.paulaschoice.com

http://www.courthousenews.com

http://www.blogher.com

http://www.babble.com

http://science.naturalnews.com