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First Amendment Hall of Fame


Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw; Dr. Julian M. Whitaker, MD; Dr. Joel D. Wallach, DVM, ND (American Longevity and Youngevity),  Ray Hamel and Peter Hamel (Pure Encapsulations); Gretchen DuBeau (Alliance for Natural Health-USA); Alexander Schauss, Ph.D., FACN (Citizens for Health); and Dr. Richard Kleinberger (Xcel Medical Pharmacy/Xcel Healthcare, Inc.) are hereby honored as inductees into the First Amendment Hall of Fame.  Each served as plaintiffs or the leaders of plaintiff companies in 8 seminal First Amendment victories over FDA censorship in which Emord & Associates served as counsel.

Because of these Champions of Free Speech, vital nutrient-disease information previously banned by FDA from the commercial marketplace has now entered the market, benefiting consumers. Please go here for a complete listing of claims. We honor these champions of freedom for fulfilling the promise of the First Amendment.  Below are their brief biographical listings.

Durk Pearson & Sandy Shaw

Cases: Pearson I, Pearson II, Pearson III, Whitaker v. Thompson, Whitaker I, CSPI, ANH I, and ANH II

Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw are scientists and authors.  Pearson received his degree in Physics from MIT in 1965 after taking a triple major in physics, biology, and psychology, with a triple minor in electrical engineering, computer science, and chemistry.  Shaw received her B.S. degree in chemistry from UCLA in 1966 after taking a double major in chemistry and biology and a minor in mathematics.

Pearson has patents in the areas of oil shale recovery, lasers, holography, and functional food.  He worked on all the manned aerospace programs from Gemini to the Shuttle and won numerous awards, including an award from the International Society for Testing and Failure Analysis (a professional organization) for his penetrating quality control and safety analyses.*  Shaw has a patent on a functional food product and her early work in the food industry included supervision of quality control of all food production at a major canned food company, as well as designing and implementing the company’s first computerized quality control system.

Pearson and Shaw also received seven screen credits for Clint Eastwood’s 1982 film, Firefox.   They served as scientific and technical advisors, and designed the special effects for all of the scenes after Eastwood entered the Firefox cockpit.

In 1990, Pearson and Shaw received the American Aging Association’s Paul F. Glenn Award for “individuals who have made special contributions to biomedical aging research.”  The award was made “as an expression of our appreciation of the continuing advocacy by Durk Pearson & Sandy Shaw of the promise of biomedical aging research.”

Pearson and Shaw have written three best-selling books on aging processes, health maintenance, and nutrition, as well as a book on FDA public policy.  Their first book, Life Extension, a Practical Scientific Approach (Warner Books, 1982) was a million plus copy #1 best-seller that introduced both the public and scientific communities to the new scientific discoveries in aging research.  As a result of publishing their book on the FDA’s censorship of truthful nonmisleading information on dietary supplements and foods in violation of the First Amendment, Freedom of Informed Choice: FDA vs. Nutrient Supplements(Common Sense Press, 1993), the two met constitutional attorney Jonathan Emord and joined up for the purpose of litigating against the FDA in a landmark decision supporting freedom of speech, Pearson v. Shalala, 164 F.3d 650 (D.C. Cir. 1999, rehearing denied).

*The award plaque reads: “Durk Pearson, an American Renaissance Man of Science whose positive achievements have extended beyond the laboratory to society in general, presented Oct. 28, 1980, Los Angeles, California.”

Julian M. Whitaker, M.D.

Cases: Pearson II, Pearson III, Whitaker v. Thompson, Whitaker I, and CSPI

Julian M. Whitaker, M.D., is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Emory University Medical School. After postgraduate training in surgery at Emory, Dr. Whitaker worked with nutritional medicine pioneer Nathan Pritikin and opened the Whitaker Wellness Institute in 1979. To date, more than 50,000 patients have been treated at the clinic, located in Newport Beach, California, with diet, exercise, targeted nutritional supplements, and safe, noninvasive therapies.

Dr. Whitaker is the author of 14 books, including: Reversing Heart Disease, Reversing Diabetes, Reversing Hypertension, The Mini-Fast Diet, Shed 10 Years in 10 Weeks, and Dr. Whitaker’s Guide to Natural Healing. He is also editor of the monthly newsletter Health & Healing, which has reached more than 5 million households since 1991, and a popular lecturer and interviewee.

Founder of the Freedom of Health Foundation, Dr. Whitaker is a tireless crusader and passionate spokesman for freedom in the medical arena. He has been instrumental in raising awareness of the benefits of nutritional supplements and other safe, effective alternative therapies as well as the dangers of indiscriminate use of prescription drugs and conventional medical interventions. His contributions also include funding successful legal battles against the FDA, supporting physicians who have been unjustly persecuted by state medical boards, and fighting for patients’ access to the therapies of their choice. For these efforts, Dr. Whitaker has received numerous awards.

Dr. Joel Wallach, DVM, ND (American Longevity/Youngevity)

Cases: Whitaker I, CPSI, ANH I, and ANH II

Joel D. Wallach, D.V.M., N.D., obtained a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Missouri in 1962, with a major in Animal Husbandry (Nutrition) and a minor in Field Crops and Soils. In 1964, he was awarded a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (DVM), also from the University of Missouri. Thereafter, Dr. Wallach completed a three year (1965-68) post-doctoral fellowship at The Center for the Biology of Natural Systems at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1982, he obtained a Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine (ND) from the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon.

Dr. Wallach held key positions with leading zoos and universities in the United States and Africa, including Director of the Jacksonville Zoological Park in Jacksonville, Florida; Research Veterinarian for the South Africa National Parks Department; and Director of Research at the St. Louis Zoological Park in St. Louis, Missouri. He is one of the founders and a former editor of the Journal of Zoo Animal Medicine.

As a researcher at the Emory University Yerkes National Primate Center in Atlanta, Georgia in 1977, Dr. Wallach discovered the world’s first known case of non-human cystic fibrosis in a selenium-deficient Rhesus monkey. At the time, cystic fibrosis was believed to the result of a human genetic disorder. Dr. Wallach’s monumental discovery set him on a 20-year path of research on the health benefits of selenium and other minerals. As a result of this work, he became known as The Mineral Doctor and the Father of Liquid Mineral Supplementation.

In 1997, Dr. Wallach and Dr. Ma Lan, M.D., M.S., founded American Longevity, the network marketing company known today as Youngevity. Within five years the company had an international network of distributors and preferred customers plus offices in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and Japan. Today Youngevity is a network marketing leader providing high quality, innovative, and unique products health conscious consumers.

Dr. Wallach currently dedicates his time to lecturing throughout the world on the therapeutic benefits of vitamins and minerals, and on lobbying the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on behalf of the dietary supplement industry. His tireless efforts and dedication to the public’s First Amendment rights to complete information on the therapeutic benefits of nutrition prompted the FDA to establish Qualified Health Claims for Selenium (“may reduce the risk of certain cancers”) and Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids (“may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease”). Only a few Qualified Health Claims exist, placing Youngevity in a unique position among Dietary Supplement and Direct Marketing companies.

Raymond Hamel, Jr. (PURE ENCAPSULATIONS)

Cases: Pearson II, Pearson III, Whitaker v. Thompson, and Whitaker I

Ray was a founder and former General Manager and Treasurer of Pure Encapsulations, Inc. Prior to that, he served an executive in the medical publishing industry, serving office based physicians and small clinics. He began his career as an accountant and CFO.

Ray, along with his brother, Peter and two naturopathic physicians, helped to create a new industry, “Clinical trial based, professionally dispensed hypo-allergenic supplements.” The company began operations in an old water wheel mill in the historic town of Willington, Connecticut. It later moved to new modern quarters in Sudbury, Massachusetts, just five miles from the “Minuteman Bridge” in Concord.

Following the sale of Pure Encapsulations in 2004, Ray has worked as treasurer for the campaigns of state and county candidates in Massachusetts. He is currently a mentor at the Boston College Carroll School of Management. He is also a business plan judge and mentor for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Ray is an avid pilot and golfer and enjoys spending more time with his wife, Helen and their three children.

Peter Hamel (PURE ENCAPSULATIONS)

Cases: Pearson II, Pearson III, Whitaker v. Thompson, and Whitaker I

Peter is a process and mechanical engineer, specializing in food and OTC encapsulated products. He was an early advocate of the “Full Disclosure” principle of supplement labeling.

Peter was also at the vanguard of the introduction of ultra high-speed encapsulators to the supplement industry, as well as the use of vegetarian two-piece hard shell capsules. He introduced pharmaceutical-grade manufacturing techniques into an industry that was notoriously lax in the areas of hygiene, product purity and the use of SOPs. Peter also pioneered the adoption of third party scientific product validation.

As a Founder of Pure Encapsulations, Inc., he was also a benefactor to a number of programs that benefitted residency programs for naturopathic physicians and other natural healers.

Following the sale of Pure to Aeterna-Zentaris, Mr. Hamel moved to Sonoma, California. He now manages a fifty acre redwood preserve and grows organic apples and persimmons. He is active with “Becoming Independent,” serving as a board member and trustee of this organization which serves adults with developmental challenges.

Peter and his wife, Jayne, just celebrated their silver anniversary and are the parents of two children who also reside in Northern California.

Gretchen DuBeau (Alliance for Natural Health-USA, formerly American Preventative Medical Association)

Cases: ANH I and ANH II, Pearson I, Pearson II, Pearson III, Whitaker v. Thompson, and Whitaker I

Gretchen DuBeau joined the Alliance for Natural Health USA (formerly the American Association for Health Freedom) as Executive and Legal Director in 2008.

A lifelong environmentalist and devotee to natural health and healing, Gretchen has found the perfect culmination of her interests at ANH-USA, where she works to shift the current medical paradigm to one that embraces real preventive and integrative medicine as the standard of care.

Gretchen also serves as Executive Director for Praktikos Institute and as Advocacy Coordinator for ANH-International.

She is an attorney and practiced environmental law and policy for five years before joining ANH to work on natural and sustainable health issues.

Gretchen holds a Masters Degree in Applied Healing Arts. She supports the Integrative Medicine Consortium (IMC) as the Public Affairs Chair and the Public Policy Co-chair, serves as Board Advisor to the International College for Integrative Medicine (ICIM), and joined the boards of the ANH-USA in 2010; the Certification Board for Nutrition Specialists (CBNS), where she serves as Treasurer, in 2011; and ANH-International and the Institute for Responsible Technology in 2012.

Dr. Alexander Schauss, PhD, FACN (Citizens for Health)

Cases: Pearson I

Alexander Schauss, PhD, FACN, is the Senior Research Director of Natural and Medicinal Products Research, and CEO at AIBMR Life Sciences, in Puyallup, Washington, USA, with offices in Bloomington, Indiana, Seattle, Washington, and Puyallup, Washington. He earned his undergraduate, graduate (summa cum laude), and doctoral degrees at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and, California Coast University in Santa Ana. Dr. Schauss has held a number of academic positions, including Clinical Professor of Natural Products Research and Adjunct Research Professor of Botanical Medicine at the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon; Senior Director of the Southwest College Research Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona; Associate Professor of Research at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and Health Sciences in Tempe, Arizona; Director, Institute for Biosocial Research, City University, Seattle; and, Lecturer in Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Bastyr University in Seattle.

He has been a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) Advisory Council (AMPAC); a member of the Ad Hoc Developmental Planning Committee of the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS); a reviewer of botanical standards and information monographs for the U.S. Pharmacopoeia Convention (USP); and, a reviewer for the International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements (IBIDS) database, maintained through an interagency partnership with the Food and Nutrition Information Center, National Agricultural Library, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Currently, he serves on one of the expert panels of USP through 2015.

In 1985, Dr. Schauss was appointed to represent the United States as a voting member to the World Health Organization (WHO) Study Group on Health Promotion, based on the recommendation of the Director General of WHO, Dr. Hafdan Mahler, leading to his confirmation by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Besides having chaired and served on numerous Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) self-affirmation expert panels, since 1991 Dr. Schauss has chaired the Safety Subcommittee of the Compliance and Labeling Integrity Committee (ComPLI) of the Natural Products Association (NPA), the nation’s largest natural products trade association, founded in 1935. ComPLI oversees the association’s GMP certification program, its TruLabel Program, and makes recommendations to the Board of Directors regarding quality and purity standards for nutraceutical products sold by over 10,000 members of the association.

He was recently appointed Associate Editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, along with John Hoffer, MD, PhD, FRCPC, at McGill University, Canada. From 1979 to 1992, Dr. Schauss served as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Biosocial and Medical Research. Currently, he reviews manuscript submissions for 21 peer review journals.

He is the author or co-author of over 200 publications that have appeared in a diverse range of scientific journals. He is also the author/co-author of 23 books in the fields of nutrition and botanical medicine. He has contributed nearly 30 chapters to a wide range of edited works, including chapters in all editions of the Textbook of Natural Medicine (Elsevier Science: Oxford, UK); the review chapter on tocotrienols in the definitive work, Tocotrienols: Vitamin E Beyond Tocopherols(CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL), and the forthcoming second edition, on the safety of tocotrienols; culinary spices in cancer chemoprevention, in Bioactive Foods and Extracts – Cancer Treatment and Prevention (CRC Press, Taylor & Francis: Boca Raton, FL); three chapters in Bioactive Foods in Promoting Health (Academic Press: Oxford, UK); and chapters in such forthcoming works as: Botanical Foods in Cancer Treatment and Prevention (Academic Press: Oxford, UK); Dried Fruits – Phytochemicals and Health Applications (Blackwell/Wiley & Sons: Chichester, UK); and, Bioactive Foods as Dietary Interventions for Arthritis and Related Inflammatory Diseases (Elsevier: Oxford, UK).

Dr. Richard Kleinberger, PharmD (XCEL MEDICAL PHARMACY/XCEL HEALTHCARE, INC.)

Cases: Pearson II and Pearson III

Richard Kleinberger, PharmD., is a seasoned pharmacist with extensive experience in a multitude of pharmacy settings. Dr. Kleinberger received his Doctor of Pharmacy in 1991 from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. After graduating from U.S.C., he worked with various healthcare professionals in a broad-based team system. Following graduation, he worked at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles as an intern and staff pharmacist. He later worked for: NMC Homecare, Inc.; East Los Angeles Hospital/Owen Healthcare; Xcel Healthcare, Inc.; Pacific Hospital of the Valley; Olive View Medical Center (a UCLA Medical Facility); Ventura County Medical Center; Amerisource Bergen; Amgen, Inc.; Community Hospital and Mission Hospital of Huntington Park; Monder Health, Inc., Kindred Healthcare. Dr. Kleinberger currently works for Scriptcare, L.L.C. as the Pharmacy Benefit Manager and Director for Government Managed Care Plans. He has experience in a wide variety of pharmacy practice areas, including, but not limited to, pharmacy administration, clinical pharmacy management, drug cost containment, and pharmacy regulations.

Dr. Kleinberger worked at Xcel from 1995 to 2004, a multifaceted corporation consisting of a healthcare division, a nutraceutical division, a homecare division, a pharmaceutical division and a research division. Xcel continuously makes an effort to develop cutting edge treatments to combat conditions that conventional treatments fail to cure or mitigate. Under Dr. Kleinberger’s guidance, Xcel participated in the Pearson v. Shalala litigation because it opposed FDA censorship of truthful health information and believed absence of such information in the market is harmful to patients.

THE FIRST AMENDMENT VICTORIES

Pearson v. Shalala (“Pearson I”), 164 F.3d 650 (D.C. Cir. 1999)

Plaintiffs:

  • Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw
  • American Preventive Medical Association
  • Julian M. Whitaker, M.D.
  • Pure Encapsulations, Inc.
  • XCEL Medical Pharmacy, Ltd.

Pearson v. Shalala (“Pearson II”), 130 F.Supp. 2d 105 (D.D.C. 2001)

Plaintiffs:

  • Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw
  • American Preventive Medical Association
  • Julian M. Whitaker, M.D.
  • Pure Encapsulations, Inc.
  • XCEL Medical Pharmacy, Ltd.

Pearson v. Thompson (“Pearson III”), 141 F.Supp. 2d 105 (D.D.C. 2001)

Plaintiffs:

  • Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw
  • American Preventive Medical Association
  • Julian M. Whitaker, M.D.
  • Pure Encapsulations, Inc.

Whitaker v. Thompson, 1:00-cv-00123 (D.D.C. 2001)*

Plaintiffs:

  • Julian M. Whitaker, M.D.
  • Pure Encapsulations, Inc.
  • Wellness Lifestyles, Inc. d/b/a American Longevity
  • Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw
  • American Association for Health Freedom

Whitaker v. Thompson (“Whitaker I”), 248 F.Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. 2002)

Intervenors:

  • Julian M. Whitaker, M.D.
  • Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw
  • American Longevity (Youngevity)

Center for Science in the Public Interest v. FDA, 2004 WL 2011467 (D.D.C. Aug. 6, 2004)

Plaintiffs:

  • Alliance for Natural Health U.S.
  • Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw
  • Coalition to End FDA and FTC Censorship (of which Youngevity was a part)

Alliance for Natural Health U.S. v. Sebelius (“ANH I”), 714 F.Supp. 2d 48 (D.D.C. 2010)

Plaintiffs:

  • Alliance for Natural Health U.S.
  • Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw
  • Coalition to End FDA and FTC Censorship (of which Youngevity was a part)

Alliance for Natural Health U.S. v. Sebelius (“ANH II”), 786 F.Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. 2011)

* This case was dismissed because the parties reached an agreement whereby FDA agreed to exercise its enforcement discretion to permit the plaintiffs to use a qualified health claim on the labels and in the labeling of their dietary supplements containing folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12.


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