A federal court ordered a California company May 6 to stop distributing hand sanitizers it claims can prevent virus infections.
The hand sanitizer products, called Zylast, claim to be effective against infection by pathogens including the norovirus, rhinovirus, rotavirus, flu virus and Ebola virus, despite a lack of evidence supporting the claim and the fact that the FDA has not approved the product.
The court said the hand sanitizer products are considered to be "unapproved new drugs" and that the company, Innovative BioDefense, was violating the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act by selling it.
The court ruled that the company, based in Lake Forest, Calif., can't sell the Zylast hand sanitizer products until it gets FDA approval or removes disease-specific claims from the products' labeling.
Read the full news release here.