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A Santa Clara marketer of health products is suing a Mississippi company in a dispute over the ingredients in a natural supplement meant to enhance male sexual performance.
Utah-based Livinit Global contends that The Menz Club product called V Maxx Rx wasn't natural at all and contained two substances close to Sildenafil, a prescription drug used to treat erectile dysfunction.
The level of Sildenafil or its analogs in the V Maxx Rx "was approximately three times the level contained in prescription Viagra pills," according to the lawsuit filed last month in federal court in Salt Lake City.
In its response, The Menz Club says that Livinit Global employees knew that The Menz Club was not the actual manufacturer and that the list of ingredients and tests results of the products were supplied by the real producer, which it did not name.
"The plaintiffs were fully aware that they were not purchasing V Maxx Rx but a blue male enhancement product [that] was believed by the defendant to contain the same ingredients as V Maxx Rx," The Menz Club said.
Livinit Global contends in the complaint that after The Menz Club had told it that the supplement contained only natural ingredients, it obtained samples of V Maxx Rx and distributed them to a group of likely purchasers.
"The response from the group that used the samples was very positive," the lawsuit says.
Livinit Global then paid $37,500 for 50,000 pills, or 75 cents apiece for a product it was going to sell for $10 each, its suit says. It also began to prepare an "expensive" marketing campaign but then refused to sell the product when a lab report showed the presence of the other drugs.
Livinit Global wants The Menz Club to be "strictly liable for damages resulting from this product."
On May 25, The Menz Club issued a voluntary recall of V Maxx Rx, saying it had found the presence of Sulfoaldenafil, a drug similar to Sildenafil, and that the substance could be a "threat to consumers" because it might interact with other drugs that contain nitrates and cause blood pressure to plunge to "dangerous levels."
The Menz Club response alleges that LivinitUpMen products from the Utah company contained analogs of Sildenafil.
Neither company responded to emails seeking comment.
The Menz Club is countersuing, alleging that Livinit Global dealt with it in bad faith, interfered with its business, engaged in malicious prosecution and slandered and defamed it. It said it was willing to refund Livinit Global's monies but that the Utah company had not returned the product.
Livinit Global is asking for more than $1 million in damages, plus other costs. The Menz Club is asking for an unspecified amount.
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