After fighting the giant Indian pharmaceutical company GNH India for months, Oxebridge has been successful in getting a “fraudulent” medical product removed from the market. Meanwhile, the certification body holding GNH’s ISO 9001 certificate and UKAS both ignored the risk to public health.
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) had issued a formal warning letter to the makers of “Biocence” products, citing them as “fraudulent” for making multiple fraudulent COVID treatment claims. The products contained eucalyptus and had no actual antiviral properties. FDA demanded they be removed from the market. Oxebridge then found Biocence continuing to be offered for sale by GNH India. GNH refused to remove the products and, in a series of increasingly unhinged emails, threatened Oxebridge with a defamation suit.
The matter was then escalated to URS Holdings, the certification body which issued GNH an ISO 9001 certificates. ISO 9001 requires that companies comply with “regulatory” requirements, and Oxebridge argued that by refusing to honor the FDA demand to remove the products GNH India was noncompliant. URS has since delayed taking action and has still not ruled on the matter, despite the formal complaint having been filed in January. URS’ representative Kristel Pitcher last claimed, in early February, that the matter had been handed over to an “independent Head Office rep” but then stopped all communication on the matter.
GNH then used its URS certification as a defense of its sale of the FDA-banned products.
Oxebridge then followed up with additional filings with the US FDA and Indian FDA, as well as the US Federal Trade Commission. As a result, the products have now been pulled from GNH’s inventory, and are no longer for sale in India.
GNH India has not apologized to Oxebridge.
URS has been embroiled in a number of scandals. It issued an ISO 9001 certificate to its own competitor, Russian Register, and was forced to remove that after a high-level complaint was filed by Oxebridge.
URS has not stopped offering its certifications in Russia, despite international sanctions arising from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. URS has likewise continued to offer certifications in Belarus. All the certifications include the UKAS logo as well.
UPDATE 17 March 2022: URS now claims it “performed a special audit to investigate further regarding export and associated regulations in line with their Certification.”
