Federal court enjoins Hologenix, LLC from making false advertising claims about Celliant’s FDA approval

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, a multidisciplinary, integrated, national professional services firm, yesterday secured a significant victory on behalf of its client, Multiple Energy Technologies, LLC. Hon. Percy Anderson of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles found that MET, maker of bioceramic powder Redwave®, was likely to succeed in its claim that Hologenix, LLC, had issued false advertising about its product, the bioceramic fiber Celliant®.

MET’s suit alleges that since 2017, Hologenix has been falsely claiming Celliant has Food and Drug Administration approval, giving the product an unfair competitive advantage. Hologenix has engaged in a widespread social media campaign using the hashtag “#FDAapproved,” and its CEO declared publicly that the company had sought and obtained FDA approval for Celliant.

Judge Anderson found that MET’s suit is likely to succeed in proving that Hologenix’s false statements have a tendency to deceive, and that MET has been injured by those false advertisements through the loss of its business relationships. The Court found that Hologenix’s statements were “literally false,” and issued an injunction barring Hologenix from making any statement on its website, on its social media platform or to any member of the press “that the Food and Drug Administration has ‘approved’ Hologenix’s product Celliant for any use.”

“By claiming that the FDA approved Celliant when it had not, Hologenix engaged in exactly the sort of conduct that the Lanham Act and other federal laws are designed to prevent”, said Barry W. Lee, a partner with Manatt who represented MET. “We are gratified by the court’s holding that Hologenix’s campaign contained ‘literally false commercial statements’ and have a ‘tendency to deceive’.”