The major distributor of VSL#3, a probiotic blend popular with GI patients, was ordered to pay $15 million to a rival after being found guilty of false advertising.
A Maryland jury concluded that VSL Pharmaceuticals and two other defendants, Alfasigma USA Inc. (ALUSA), of Covington, La., and Leadiant Biosciences Inc. (formerly Sigma-Tau), had been selling a pirated version of the probiotic blend that Claudio DeSimone developed more than 20 years ago for another company. The DeSimone formulation