Hi-Tech’s FDA DMAA Lawsuit Recap (Updated April 2020)

BREAKING (August 30, 2019): The United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the district court ruling, stating the following:

DMAA is not an “herb or other botanical.” It is not a “constituent” of an herb or other botanical. And it is not generally recognized by qualified experts, as adequately shown through scientific procedures, to be safe under the conditions of its intended use. The district court properly so ruled. The decision is AFFIRMED.

Hi-Tech followed with a request for an en banc review, since one of the three appeals court judges dissented. In such a review, the case would be heard by all appellate judges. That request is below, but was denied:

Below are older updates to the ongoing DMAA supplement saga here.

August 16, 2018: Oral Arguments heard in the Appeal

Hi-Tech Pharmacetucials got their day in court during a 36-minute oral argument hearing at the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. You can read the full blog post (full audio clip included) or watch the video below:

Mike’s DMAA Appeal oral argument analysis

The long story short is that fireworks came from an unexpected party — one of the judges — and a few things definitely slanted towards Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, including a “fatal flaw” made by the FDA’s attorney after one of the three judges asked him a hypothetical question.

At this point, all chips are now on the table. We wait.

March 1, 2018: Oral Arguments to be heard

This should be taken as pro-DMAA news, in that the appeal may have some legs here:

The Court has determined that oral argument will be necessary in this case.

Additional Appendix documents were ordered to be circulated to appropriate parties such as Jared Wheat. And the waiting game continues:

January 25, 2018: Hi-Tech’s Response to the FDA’s Response Filed… and now we wait

In response to the FDA’s January 5th response (shown below), Hi-Tech has filed their “closing arguments” as to why the eleventh circuit should take this case:

Jared Wheat put it simply with this one:

It is now in the hands of the judges…..

— Jared Wheat, Founder and CEO of Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals

Indeed. Now we wait and see whether or not we’ll get another fireworks show or if it’s indeed game over for DMAA.

January 5, 2018: The FDA’s response to Hi-Tech’s Appeal Filed

On January 5, 2018, the FDA / US Government formally filed their response to Hi-Tech’s appeal (linked below). Read their response below:

The long and short of it is that this is essentially becoming a big fight over what Congress meant when they wrote the words “constituent” and “botanical”, as they’re no longer arguing DMAA’s basis in nature (which had formerly been covered-up, but exposed by this court case).

Jared Wheat made the following comment via email:

On “dietary ingredient,” the Government now fully embraces the District Court’s interpretation, and says nothing about the USADA issues or why the Government has consistently moved the target throughout this litigation. We will give them hell about that, but ultimately I believe that the Eleventh Circuit’s decision will turn on whether it buys the District Court’s rationale on the constituent of a botanical. The Government now supports the District Court by arguing, among other things, that (1) our interpretation would make almost anything a dietary ingredient, so it can’t be right; and (2) all the other items in the 321(ff) list (concentrates, metabolites, extracts, combinations) “all refer to physical processes of obtaining or creating an item,” such that “[l]ike its associated words, ‘constituent’ must refer to a material that can be derived through a physical process from a vitamin, mineral, herb, botanical, or amino acid.” The former point strikes me as contrary to the text; the latter strikes me as convoluted and, in the end, unpersuasive. Regardless, one unifying response is that the most obvious inference to be drawn from the text and legislative history is that Congress wanted a wide array of naturally occurring substances to be deemed dietary ingredients and presumed safe. If the FDA does not like that result, it should ask Congress to change the statute. But courts have to apply it according to its terms.

On GRAS, the Government gets deep into the weeds, claiming that not only was the Keefe affidavit sufficient to require summary judgment, but that even without the Keefe affidavit, our evidence was insufficient to establish GRAS. Our response will be to get equally deep into the weeds ourselves, which will send the message that, at the very least, this wasn’t an issue that could have been resolved on summary judgment.

— Jared Wheat, Founder and CEO of Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals

November 2017: Hi-Tech Has Officially Filed their Appeal

This one’s for all the marbles — On November 22, 2017, Hi-Tech Pharma and Jared Wheat filed their official appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit!

What’s the appeal say?

There’s nothing entirely “new” in the appeal to those of you who have been following the case:

Here we go… this one’s for all the marbles!!

• Hi-Tech sticks to their arguments that DMAA is a constituent of a botanical, making it DSHEA-compliant.

  That botanical would of course be geranium, and Hi-Tech points out the studies where DMAA was found in nature, including those where researchers covered up the truth as detailed in depth on this blog.

• Hi-Tech makes the argument that the law (DSHEA 1994) does not state that the dietary ingredient sold must come from the botanical, and that the judge’s decision was not in the spirit of what Congress wrote.

  More importantly, the judge never gave Hi-Tech a chance to prove that DMAA could be extracted from geraniums, and cites the Iovate Patent filed in the US and granted (and still live) in Canada. This alone should leave things open to appeal

• The document is 89 pages long, but reads extremely well and has a thorough index up front. The legalese used is at a minimum.

Below is a snippet near the conclusion:

“At each step of the way, the Government’s actions in this case foisted burdens on Hi-Tech and Wheat that Congress did not want manufacturers to bear. DSHEA presumes that dietary-supplement manufacturers will not need the FDA’s preapproval to market their products and that the FDA can take those products off the market only by showing that they are unsafe. The FDA could make no such showing here. It proceeded with the seizure based on flawed studies it eventually abandoned.”

— Hi-Tech DMAA Appeal

Don’t confuse with the [questionable] raid below – two separate ongoing issues!

Realize that this relates to the original 2012 siezure, not the recent October 2017 one discussed below, which has no bearing on this lawsuit.

So right now, there are two ongoing issues:

1. This lawsuit appeal, which is really for all the marbles.
2. Hi-Tech’s unfortunate failure to get their DMAA back after the indictment over the red yeast rice supplement discussed below.

While these are not officially related to each other, the FDA is clearly trying to tie them together, as they continue to blur the lines and coordinate attacks on Hi-Tech using whatever means necessary to get after DMAA.

So much so that we have to ask, what is their ulterior motive here?

October 2017: “Unrelated” but Relevant Update: The DMAA Raid

On October 5th, 2017, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals was raided over RED YEAST RICE and Jared Wheat was arrested over the matter, but the feds took the unrelated DMAA while they were at it.

Since DMAA had literally nothing to do with the indictment — it was not mentioned a single time — Hi-Tech filed petitions to get their wrongly confiscated DMAA back, but unfortunately those motions were denied.

The documents and video in the second link above tell the sad and scary story about how far the FDA will go — perhaps to unethical lengths — to get this ingredient off the market – despite the near dozen times DMAA has been found in nature (geraniums)!!

This update takes this situation to a whole new level, and while the “Red Yeast Rice” raid is technically unrelated to this lawsuit, it deserves mention on this page.

Since the motion to get Hi-Tech’s confiscated DMAA back failed, the appeal to the 11th circuit is DMAA’s final chance. Until then, DMAA supplements will be going out of stock and will be replaced by non-DMAA ingredients.

June 2017 Case Update: Motion to Reconsider Denied

On June 2, 2017, Judge Hunt published a short, three-page order denying Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals’ Motion to Reconsider (which is discussed below). It’s a quick and easy read, so look at it below before seeing the next steps.

The judge seems to have placed the entire decision on this statement:

“This Court again points out that the ability to extract usable quantities of DMAA from geraniums is not the issue. The question is whether someone has extracted DMAA from geraniums or some other plant and placed that DMAA in a product, and it is obvious from the record that no one has done that. If someone had, there would not have been a dispute regarding whether DMAA was a botanical in the first instance.”

— Judge Willis B. Hunt, Jr.

The issue is that none of this was ever written into DSHEA 1994 by Congress, the law that governs the dietary supplement industry. It is a vague document (possibly intentionally), which could leave the door open to appeal.

And that’s exactly what Hi-Tech Pharma intends to do:

Jared Wheat’s Response and Plans Moving Forward

“I’m not surprised that he did not reverse himself, the order makes little sense to me and my attorneys. I think the judge (or his clerk who probably drafted this), dug an even bigger hole for himself. If the judge is now finding that DMAA can be extracted from Geraniums, which are now not obscure, where does he invent the requirement that one most show a “history” of extraction by Hi-Tech or some competitor? The opinion does not even address “constituent.”

From an appellate perspective, the order does help underscore some of the weaknesses of the original opinion. His emphasis on history of extraction (rather than extractability) gives us a huge target to shoot at: it is as if he saying that if we start extracting DMAA from geraniums in our lab, it becomes a botanical… That is completely unworkable and wrong.

The Court’s holding was erroneous and we believe will be vacated. There is no requirement under DSHEA –– in the statute, the legislative history, or the case law –– that a substance only qualifies as dietary ingredient if it can be extracted in “usable quantities or has a history of extactability.” In fact, DSHEA clearly states that the “constituents” of a botanical are considered a dietary ingredient and sets no quantitative threshold for what constitutes a constituent of a botanical. Importantly, the Government agreed with this interpretation of DSHEA. Simply put, the Court’s conclusion otherwise impermissibly interjected its policy opinions in place of statutory interpretation. The Court’s conclusion is thus reversible legal error and will be reversed.

When Hi-Tech prevailed over the FTC in the 11th circuit from a ruling over an erroneous requirement to do double-blind placebo trials on the products themselves in April 2014 it took until May 2015 to get a decision from the 11th circuit. Many times it takes 18 months or longer to get a decision. In the meantime, it is business as usual until we get a ruling from our appeal to the 11th circuit—just like we prevailed over the FTC on appeal at the 11th circuit we have complete faith we will do so again against the FDA!”

— Jared Wheat, CEO Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals

This should tell you what you need to know for the foreseeable future.

In the meantime, we’re diligently working on a massive update to our post how many times DMAA has been found in geraniums (hint: we’re up to 9 times right now), and although its basis in nature as not even argued anymore (the goalposts in this case oddly continue moving), our article will underline what a trainwreck of a witch-hunt this entire situation has been for the past half decade.

May 2017 Case Update: Hi-Tech’s Motion to Vacate Order

Hi-Tech has continued their fight, filing a Motion to Vacate the Order on Summary Judgement on April 17, 2017, followed by a Filing Supporting the Motion to Reconsider (May 8, 2017) and Support for a Motion to Stay (halt) the Case (May 8, 2017), where they argue several of the points discussed below from earlier this month:

Major Case Update: April 4, 2017

February 2017 Case Updates, with links explaining the most dramatic parts:

1. DMAA *IS* FOUND IN GERANIUM OIL. THEY DOCTORED THE STUDIES.
2. Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals Issues Feb 2017 Press Release Regarding DMAA (this is the main story wrapped into one page)
3. DMAA is SAFE. The Toxicology Report the FDA Doesn’t Want You to See

Mike’s March 1, 2017 explainer video on this case

If you have a lot of time, see where this case is as of March 1, 2017 in Mike’s video titled “A Supplement Conspiracy” where some of the documents referenced are in the links above, and more are coming:

Prior to the above revelations, this post was also updated November 17, 2016. Click here to skip down to this latest update if you’re already familiar with the case.

Hi-Tech claims that the FDA never formally banned DMAA, nor did they ever send them a warning letter. As such, they’re still selling DMAA supplements such as this popular OxyELITE Pro clone

In 2014, we wrote about the gutsy releases of the HydroxyElite fat burner and the Jack’d Up pre workout by Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals.

The noteworthy part is that these two supplements were released with the stimulant DMAA (1,3 dimethylamylamine), long after USPLabs threw in the towel in their fight against the FDA and “voluntarily” destroyed $8 million worth of Jack3d and OxyELITE Pro inventory.^[1]

In those HydroxyElite and Jack’d Up articles, we also noted that Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals was suing the FDA over this, explaining that Hi-Tech claimed DMAA was never formally banned.

We had no updates for quite some time, but given the stellar reviews that HydroxyElite has been receiving (apparently it’s rumored to be better than the original OxyELITE Pro, if anyone can believe that), it was time to start knocking on some doors and ask what’s really going on.

It turns out that a lot has been happening behind the scenes during early 2015, and this post will discuss the entire Hi-Tech vs. FDA legal saga, with updates over time:

DMAA Court Documents

After some digging, we’re happy to say that we have four legal documents pertaining to this case. Any of you DMAA lovers or supplement industry critics/fans absolutely must read these.

The PDFs are available to all of our readers below:

Before we discuss the above court docs, let’s first backtrack and see how we got here in the first place. Click here to skip to the 2015 updates if you already know the history.

The Quick DMAA History

The story goes something like this:

1. DMAA supplements (especially USPLabs’ Jack3d and OxyELITE Pro) were best-selling hits from 2009-2012.
2. In 2012, the FDA issued warning letters to several manufacturers, stating that DMAA is not a “dietary supplement ingredient”, with claims regarding its lawful marketing.^[2]

   Such companies were USP Labs, Fahrenheit Nutrition, Nutrex Research, Gaspari Nutrition, SEI Pharmaceuticals, iSatori, MuscleMeds, and others.

   But notably, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals was not sent a warning letter, although they had several of the top-selling DMAA-based products (in the form of their fat burners). More on that later.

3. 

   Rest in peace, dear friends. You were great when you were used responsibly.

   Nearly every company stopped producing DMAA-based supplements, except for USPLabs. The guys behind Jack3d and OxyELITE sent a response letter claiming that DMAA was indeed naturally found, citing three studies.^[3,4,5]

   Note that USPLabs’ official responses are not available on the FDA’s website, and likely will not be made available without a Freedom of Information Act filed.

4. The FDA objected to USPLabs’ response on multiple grounds in a letter dated April 18, 2013.^[6]
5. At that same time, USPLabs stated that they would no longer produce DMAA-based supplements, issuing a press release that they still stood behind the legality and safety of their products, but decided to stop their manufacture for business reasons.^[7]
6. Three months later, in July of 2013, USPLabs also agreed to destroy $8 million in Jack3d and OxyELITE Pro.^[1]
7. Another four months later, in November of 2013, the US Marshals (at the request of the FDA) raided Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals and seized $2 million worth of raw 1,3 Dimethylamylamine and DMAA-based products,^[8] without a warning letter or a seizure notice.

As supplies of Jack3d and OxyELITE Pro dwindled from retail stores, this effectively marked the end of DMAA. Right?

Wrong!

This isn’t yet over – not even by a longshot.

Here is where Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals steps in to pick up where USPLabs left off.

The epic DMAA lawsuit showdown is coming

The Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals FDA Lawsuit over DMAA

Hi-Tech Pharma took issue with two things up above:

1. $2 million worth of their inventory was seized, and they were never warned about it or given what they claimed to be due process.

2. According to Hi-Tech, the FDA never formally banned DMAA in the first place. There was never any “Final Agency Action” taken, nor were any laws ever formally written regarding 1,3 dimethylamylamine.

   Hi-Tech’s stance is clear: warning letters do not constitute law, and DMAA is natural, safe, and legal per the FDA’s DSHEA Act.

   By the FDA’s own laws and definitions, it has never been proven to be “adulterated” or “misbranded”, and thus cannot be detained.^[9]

So on November 7, 2013, Hi-Tech Pharmaceutical sued the FDA… with very little press coverage.

You can see the original lawsuit filed in Document 1, shared above.

The TL;DR of Hi-Tech’s Lawsuit

In the 22-page PDF unearthed by PricePlow, there’s a lot of interesting information that’s actually quite easy to digest. Here are the bullet points:

• The suit was filed specifically against Margaret Hamburg, Kathleen Sebelius, and the FDA.
• Hi-Tech claims that,
  • 

    Say what you will about Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals… these guys have brass balls the size of Georgia

    DMAA is found in the geranium plant, and has been the subject of at least a dozen peer-reviewed scientific studies (making it one of the most studied botanical products in the US).

  • The FDA has engaged in a campaign of intimidation against supplement companies such as themselves.
  • The FDA has declined to engage in the rulemaking process necessary to formally ban DMAA,with no public discussion or comment.
  • It is the FDA’s job to implement and enforce DSHEA in compliance with federal law:
    • They explain DSHEA further, discussing the definitions of “adulterated”
    • There is much discussion over the burden of proof regarding safety and efficacy. Hi-Tech states that “before commencing an action, the FDA must provide the responding party ‘appropriate notice and opportunity to present views” regarding the matter’.
• The lawsuit then discusses the FDA’s campaign against the industry, giving a history similar to ours shown above, and also mentioning that Hi-Tech was never a recipient of a warning letter.
• Hi-Tech then discusses the damages done to them by the FDA’s actions.
• Hi-Tech repeatedly states that,
  • “Unless and until there has been a proper rule making procedure pursuant to DSHEA, Hi-Tech may continue to market and manufacture DMAA containing products.”
  • “Unless and until there has been a proper rule making procedure pursuant to DSHEA, Defendants may not detain DMAA containing products marketed or manufactured by Hi-Tech.”
• Hi-Tech then makes their requests, such as having their DMAA detention order set aside, they want the FDA’s actions declared as unlawful, they request injunctive relief, and they want attorney’s fees.

At that point, Hi-Tech went to work creating more DMAA supplements, including HydroxyElite (which is nearly an OxyELITE Pro clone, with an added ingredient) as well as Jack’d Up (a product similar to the original Jack3d with DMAA).

When those products were released in 2014, PricePlow got keyed into the situation, but without the details shown in these PDFs.

The FDA’s move is next:

August 2014: FDA attempts to try two different lawsuits

According to court documents, things remained quiet (or at least behind-the-scenes) for nearly a year.

Then the fighting broke out. Now, see Document 2, dated August 28, 2014, and an official docket text of the following:

ORDER granting the parties’ ^[32] Joint Motion for Clarification and to inform the parties that the dismissal of Civil Action 1:14-cv-2479-WBH was merely a procedural action to get an extra case number off the Court’s docket after the two cases had been merged. The joint preliminary planning report is due on September 30, 2014 and the remaining deadlines are adjusted in accordance with that date.

Signed by Judge Willis B. Hunt, Jr on 8/28/14. (ddm)

Perhaps any of you lawyers out there can clarify for us in the comments, but this seems to be an order written by the US District Court judge, clarifying that the two ongoing suits in different jurisdictions had been joined and would be tried as one trial.

So it looks like they merged two cases, then closed one case to get the case number off the docket, but the judge clarified that the “case closure” had “no substantive effect whatsoever”. Such a case closure does not constitute any legal decision/victory/loss. Fair enough.

Point being, there seems to have been a lot of legal wrangling and confusing practices going on by one or both parties, and this clarifies that there is one court case to be tried in one Federal jurisdiction. This makes sense because the legality of the seizure of goods is quite related to the legality of DMAA, so it might as well all get played out together.

But that is only the procedural stuff at the beginning…

December 2014: FDA attempts to throw out lawsuit

Next, see Document 3, dated December 11, 2014, with a docket text of

“REPLY BRIEF re ^[43] MOTION to Dismiss Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s Complaint Against FDA and HHS Defendants filed by United States of America. (O’Neal, David)”

In this 18-page PDF, you can read how the FDA attempted to get the case dismissed. The FDA argues that Hi-Tech’s arguments (in the bullet points describe above by us) are simply wrong, and states their case as to why Hi-Tech’s arguments hold no merit.

Amongst other things, they cite various other legal decisions, court cases, and laws from the past.

We encourage you to read as much of this motion as possible. At that point, unless you’re a lawyer, we’re confident that you’re likely come to the same conclusion as us (discussed in our brief commentary below).

April, 2015: FDA motion fails. This case is GOING TO COURT

Finally, see Document 4, dated April 21, 2015, with a docket text of

“ORDER: the Government’s motion to strike, ^[37], is DENIED. The Government’s motion to dismiss, ^[43], is DENIED without prejudice. Hi-Tech’s motion to stay, ^[46], is GRANTED. The parties are DIRECTED to confer and to present to this Court, within two weeks, a proposed scheduling order that provides a timetable for further discovery and the filing of the Government’s motion for summary judgment and the subsequent pleadings discussed above.

Signed by Judge Willis B. Hunt, Jr., on 4/21/15. (jta)”

This order, written by Judge Willis B. Hunt, Jr., DENIES all motions of the US Government to strike and dismiss this case. He states that “it is clear that certain evidentiary issues need to be developed”, and then orders the two parties to set a timetable for discovery and to begin filing motions for the court case.

In short: this case is going to court, get ready to play ball!

What’s next?

We expect this suit to go into 2016 and beyond, and will post any updates when possible. Make no mistake: simply having the court case not get thrown out is a major victory, and signals that the judge sees at least some kind of merit to Hi-Tech’s arguments.

Until more happens, we fully expect Hi-Tech to continue to sell their DMAA-based supplements, until “Final Agency Action” is declared, as will likely be decided by this court case.

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Our commentary

First, note that we’re obviously not lawyers.

It seems that Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals has some reasonable arguments, and they at least deserve to have their voice heard in court. Having never received a warning letter (at least not publicly) makes the seizure of their DMAA products seem extremely odd.

Nary a warning letter??

It is rumored that the FDA did not send Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals a warning letter because it was probable that they would sue and force a court case like this one as early as 2012 or 2013. The FDA largely succeeded in getting DMAA off the market while the media was able to smear it during that timeframe. In that aspect, the FDA seems to have played their cards well.

Remember where the burden of proof lies

A major thing not discussed here at length is the burden of proof. As DSHEA is written, the burden is currently on the FDA to prove that a compliant supplement is dangerous or adulterated (Section 402 (21 U.S.C. 342)).^[10] On occasion, the FDA (and often the FTC) seemingly try to circumvent this law through various means, such as those discussed in Hi-Tech’s original lawsuit against them. That is why the court system exists – to solve, rule, and judge how the law is to be applied.

The FDA says “No, you prove it.” USP says “Here’s proof. You prove that it isn’t.” Then the FDA says “That proof isn’t good enough. Here’s some other geranium plants that don’t have it.”

This can go on forever.^[7]

Hi-Tech’s legal team indeed won a few early decisions – we can’t believe it’s easy to get a judge to publicly slap such a large government agency, as was the case in Document 4. In that regard, we consider it to be progress.

Interesting strategic differences

So far, we’ve noticed that Hi-Tech’s lawyers and the Judge both write their arguments and statements in clear and concise English that nearly any high school graduate can understand. The US Government’s lawyers, however, are wrote their arguments in extremely difficult-to-understand, bureaucratic-driven verbiage. It is basically incomprehensible for an untrained eye.

For whatever reason, we get the impression that the FDA did not want to take this to court. That’s often the case for anyone, mind you – court cases are expensive and time-consuming. But with this judge, Hi-Tech Pharma will apparently get at least some chance at a fair fight, and that’s about all anyone in the industry can ask for.

Got your popcorn ready?

We’ll keep this up to date with as much information as possible. Until then, you can see what DMAA supplements are still out there on the web, read about Jack’d Up or HydroxyElite, or sign up for alerts below or on our Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals page.

Case Updates

This section will be updated over time:

November 2015 statement regarding USPLabs

Update Regarding recent USPLabs allegations: “Hi-Tech continues to support and defend the legality of DMAA, and will maintain the status quo until their case is heard in court. They are not involved with the recent allegations against USPLabs”.

January 2016 Statement Regarding USPLabs Jack3d Case Dismissal

Not directly related to this lawsuit, but a wrongful death case against USPLabs over Jack3d has been dropped by the courts. One important comment was that “the court found no scientific evidence that the product is harmful or hazardous.” There are several other good quotes, including some updates from Hi-Tech’s Jared Wheat, whose case is discussed in the article below:

October 2016 Mini-Update

The case is moving slowly, which is common for a large federal case, but it does continue to move forward. In the summer and fall of 2016, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals and the Government were still going through discovery proceedings, but nothing major has been revealed yet. Stay tuned for more updates.

November 2016 Deliberative Process Privilege Order

The latest news is that Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals seems to have caught the FDA from withholding certain information from this case. Hi-Tech’s legal team has been asserting that the FDA’s process log is deficient.

You can download the PDF here — our explanation is below:

The FDA is using something known as Deliberative process privilege, which is a common-law principle that is being used in this case to protect the internal deliberations of an agency — meaning that the FDA does not need to show their deliberations about why they did something. Such a principle protects the government from exposing its reasoning.

However, as the judge in this case sees it, this principle only has to do with deliberations, not actual facts of the case. So if they made a decision about why XYZ is bad based on PDQ data, they don’t need to disclose in court their discussions about why XYZ is bad, but they do need to provide PDQ data.

As such, the Honorable J. Clay Fuller ordered that the FDA produce all data used in its decision-making by Friday, November 18.

While seeing the deliberations would have been fascinating, this is a victory for Hi-Tech Pharma (we’re not sure how big) in that they get to examine the data. And we’re confident that this data will show what we’ve known all along – when taken as directed and without medical conditions or other prescription drugs, DMAA is not unsafe.

We’ll see — and we’ll keep updating this post as the case goes on.