Shire Development (Wayne, PA) has received a warning letter from FDA for what the agency says are overstatements of the efficacy and understatements of the risk of Adderall XR, the firm's popular ADHD medication. The claim's were voiced in a testimonial by none other than Ty Pennington, host of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," on its own web site and on a popular Internet video site. The testimonial is no longer up on the site (that I could find), but the transcript is as follows;

"Now once I got on medication it's just amazing
the transformation I made. I -- It literally changed
my life, and gave me the confidence to achieve my goals,
like being an artist. As a kid, I never could have imagined I could do it. But
with the medicines like Adderall XR, it's truly a transformation.
I mean talk about an Extreme Makeover, I'm like living it. Now growing up with
ADHD can be a little difficult. It's not easy to communicate with
people, including your own family. So you become kind of alienated.
You feel like you're different, and you don't really fit in.
And that, well, can kind of cause you to feel different, and nobody likes to
feel different. So as someone who has had ADHD, and is overcoming it, proper
treatment has truly changed my life and made an amazing difference."

While the Adderall spot has been taken down, Shire is still retaining Pennington to promote its Vyvanse adult ADHD product. Also, I did come across another Ty Internet spot for Bayer--it seems that Mr. Pennington is only too willing to endorse medications.

--PWT