On 17 Feb 2021, the US court of appeal upheld the original ruling which was between the original inventor of the De Simone Formulation, or DSF, Prof DeSimone, and the American Companies (defendants) who market the product with the brand name VSL®, which contains the same formulation that is marketed in the UK.
Please see link to press release https://schulmanbh.com/news/schulman-bhattacharya-wins-federal-appeal-u-s-court-of-appeals-for-the-fourth-circuit-upholds-jury-verdict-in-excess-of-17-million-on-false-advertising-and-unjust-enrichment-claims-and-aff/
The Jury found in favour of Professor Claudio De Simone, and that VSL Pharmaceuticals (The American Company) were:
- Misusing Prof De Simone’s Intellectual Property or know how.
- Marketing and Selling a product under the VSL® trademark that was not in fact manufactured from the original proprietary formula patented by Professor De Simone.
- The copy product sold under the VSL® brand name was not the same as Professor DeSimone’s original invention and had never been tested in humans to ensure that it performs in the same way as the original De Simone formulation (DSF).
Vivomixx® remains the only probiotic food supplement marketed in the UK that contains the original De Simone Formulation.
* Disclaimer: VSL® is a registered trademark of Actial Farmaceutica Lda. Gastropharm is not affiliated with, nor endorsed by Actial. Vivomixx® is a registered trademark of Mendes SA.