Airborne sold a 'miracle cold buster' — the clinical study behind it was two guys

Airborne was invented by a schoolteacher with no medical training and sold as a 'miracle cold buster': take it on planes, in classrooms, at the office, and it would ward off germs, prevent colds and shorten the ones you caught. The founder toured Dr. Phil and Live with Regis and Kelly; sales passed $100 million by 2006. Behind the claims stood what the company called a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study.

The study was run by GNG Pharmaceutical Services — which ABC News revealed to be a two-man operation created specifically for the Airborne trial: no clinic, no scientists, no doctors, led by a man whose claimed Indiana University degree the university disavowed. In March 2008 Airborne agreed to $23.3 million in class-action refunds; on 13 August 2008 the FTC added $6.5 million, bringing the total settlement to $30 million. The Commission found no competent and reliable scientific evidence that Airborne prevented colds or protected anyone in crowded places.

The company denied wrongdoing, and its CEO offered the defence that 'the best proof that the product works was that 40,000 customers contact the company every year' — customer mail as clinical evidence. The order barred all unsubstantiated cold-prevention and germ-fighting claims and funded refunds of up to six purchases for buyers from 2001 to 2007.