Boiron

Certificate for alleged student "Donald Duck" as Boiron certified specialist (Italian: Paperino=Donald Duck, Source: )

The French pharmaceutical company Boiron is worlds largest manufacturer of homeopathic products. Branches of the listed company exist in 59 countries. However, Boiron has no presence in German speaking countries.

In 2009 Boiron had a turnover of 526 million Euros (91 million euro profit). In 2004, it employed a workforce of 2,779 people. The majority of the shares is held by family Boiron, the managing director is also a member of the family .

In June 2005 Dolisos Laboratories, another manufacturer of homeopathic products was bought by Boiron.

Offerings include classic homeopathic preparations after Hahnemann as well as so called "poly"-preparations from combination homeopathic remedies.

History

The actual founder was Parisian pharmacist and homeopathic supporter René Baudry in 1911, who founded the "Pharmacie générale homéopathique française" in Paris (boulevard Malesherbes 68, 8. arrondissement of Paris). In 1922 Baudry sold his business and founded a "Laboratoire central homéopathique rhodanien" in Lyon.

The brothers Jean und Henri Boiron (both pharmacists) contacted Baudry later and were employed by him. In 1932 the brothers Boiron founded at the aforementioned address the "Laboratoire central homéopathique de France" which became later the "Laboratoires Homéopathiques Modernes" (LHM).

The Boiron-Group was formed in 1967 by a union of several homeopathic manufacturers. The company went public in 1987(Lyon). Boiron took over several other pharmaceutical companies in the following years.

Oscillococcinum

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One of the best known preparations of Boiron is Oscillococcinum (Oscillo), a milk sugar preparation which is claimed to be effective against flu. The name is derived from a presumption of French physician Joseph Roy (1891–1978) who believed in 1917 during a flu epidemic to have observed the bacterial genus Oscillococcus in the blood of disease patients. Oscillococcinum C200 is the best-selling homeopathic product in the U.S. It is also called "the $20-million duck" there. Annual turnover of the product is $ 20 million. The preparation is produced from duck liver, but only a single duck liver is needed for the entire turnover - and even from that a lot is wasted: The potency C200 means the ratio of liver to solution is 1 to a number with 400 zeros. For comparison: The whole universe including earth consists of about 10 to the power of 78 particles. Ingredients of Oscillococcinum:

Active ingredient: Anas Barbariae Hepatis et Cordis Extractum (extract of Muscovy Duck liver and heart) 200CK HPUS 1×10−400 g. Inactive ingredient: 0.85 g sucrose, 0.15 g lactose (100% sugar)

Efficacy of Oscillococcinum against influenza is not scientifically proven. A Cochrane-review found seven studies on the subject and came to the conclusion that only two of them can be evaluated and no evidence of efficacy could be demonstrated:

Main results - ... There was no evidence that homoeopathic treatment can prevent influenza-like syndrome...Oscillococcinum treatment reduced the length of influenza illness by 0.28 days (95% CI 0.50 to 0.06). Oscillococcinum also increased the chances that a patient considered treatment to be effective (RR 1.08; 95% CI 1.17 to 1.00)...Authors' conclusions - Though promising, the data were not strong enough to make a general recommendation to use Oscillococcinum for first-line treatment of influenza and influenza-like syndromes. Further research is warranted but the required sample sizes are large. Current evidence does not support a preventative effect of Oscillococcinum-like homeopathic medicines in influenza and influenza-like syndromes.

Lawsuit threats against Boiron-critic and blogger Samuele Riva

Threathening letter from Boiron page 1 (click to enlarge)

offending article with promptly removed caricatures (note in red letters) at blogzero.it

Threathening letter from Boiron page 2

Attentive tracking of the thread and reactions to it in the Internet ("Streisand Effekt") at "börsennews.de"

The actions against Italian blogger Samuele Riva from Milan by multinational pharmaceutical company Boiron with millions of budget seem to be an unequal struggle David against Golitath. On July 13 and July 27 2011 the 28-year-old computer scientist had added two ridiculing articles in his blog about homeopathy with the title "Homeopathy - myth and legend" (omeopatia mito e leggenda) (Article 1: [1] Article 2: [2]). The blogger also showed to pictures of Oscillococcinum with commentaries. According to the threatening letter by company Boiron Riva had written the following text below the pictures:

• 13.7.2011..Il piu Nulla totale che secondo la Boiron cura l'influenza...diluito 200K non contiene alcuna molecola di pricipio attivo. ("The absolute nothing, which is supposed to cure flu according to Boiron"..."diluted 200K it contains not one molecule of the active substance")

• 27.7.2011..Nuoce gravemente all'intelligenza (di chi lo aquista).. ("serious harm to the intelligence (of the buyer)")

Italian branch of Boiron acted irritated and threatened with a lawsuit for libel. The blogger removed the pictures from the articles. According to the "British Medical Journal" (BMJ) which collected information about the lawsuit threat and contacted Boiron, Boiron employee Silvia Nencioni had approached the hoster of the blog on Juli 28 2011 and asked him in writing to remove all references to Boiron and block acces to the articles. Otherwise Boiron would sue. According to Boiron the statements in the articles were “untrue and derogatory both of homeopathy and [the] company,” and responsible for tarnishing the company’s reputation and cause "serious damage". The hoster refused to disclose address and identity of the blogger to Boiron, these information would be disclosed only to government agencies under certain circumstances. Riva commented on the lawsuit threat:

[...] When I was informed of the threatening letter, I removed the pictures and the direct references to the company and its products, while leaving the articles about homeopathy online. I also sent an email to the company telling them I had complied with their requests, but have not received a reply so far [...] (cited from BMJ)

Riva continues to document the progression of the lawsuit threat in his blog "blogzero.it" and also created a website in English, since the affair received international attention: [3]. More than a hundred blogs and websites have reported so far (as of Aug. 9 2011) about the lawsuit threat. Riva reports in his blog, said articles were read bei less than 150 people in the first 56 hours after release. After the lawsuit threat his blog is visited now several thousand times per day (as of Aug. 9 2011) . A long and growing list of blogs support Riva now: List of supporters - further supporters can register there.

According to the BMJ Boiron is "monitoring all media including the web to see what is being said about about our company".

Versions of this article in other languages

• Français: Boiron
• Deutsch: Boiron

Literature

• Fabio Turone: "News - Homoeopathy multinational Boiron threatens amateur Italian blogger", BMJ 2011, 343:d5197 doi: 10.1136/bmj.d5197 (12. August 2011)
• Oscillococcinum, le joli grand canard. Science et Pseudo-sciences, Cahiers bimestriels de l'Association Française pour l'Information Scientifique, Nr. 202, März-April 1993

Weblinks

• Website of Boiron
• http://droit-medical.com/actualites/4-evolution/952-laboratoires-boiron-action-contre-blogueur-amateur
• http://www.blogzero.it/2011/08/02/boiron-omeopatia-querela-denuncia-blog/
• http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d5197.extract
• http://skepticblog.org/2011/03/03/oscillococcinum
• http://www.homeowatch.org/history/oscillo.html
• http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/homeopathic-thuggery

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• http://blog.psiram.com/?p=3832