OREM — A Utah company says it shouldn't be included in a sweeping lawsuit by a women's rights advocacy group because it no longer makes a product that the group says contains toxic ingredients.
The attorney for Salt Lake-based Klein-Becker says the company no longer makes a progesterone gel that was said to enhance sexual desire in women.
Klein-Becker stopped making TestroGel Acute Transfer Androgenic Gel years ago, company general counsel Stephen Nagin said.
In January, the California Women's Law Center sued 40 companies for allegedly failing to comply with federal and state laws when selling progesterone and testosterone creams, gels and lotions over the past four years. The suit listed 1,000 unnamed companies so other firms could be added later.
Last month, the center notified 34 additional companies — including two in Utah — that they would be added to the suit in April if they didn't stop making their products.
The center also wants the companies to agree to settlements for making their products, which the center said use hormones considered "dangerous toxic chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer or reproductive harm."
The center is seeking $20 for every product sold in the past four years.
The two Utah companies are Klein-Becker and Provo-based Tahitian Noni International, which makes Tahiti Trim Plan 40 Body Balance Cream. The cream is meant to reduce food cravings in women over 40.
A spokesman for Tahitian Noni said last week the cream is safe because it uses natural, plant-based progesterone.
"It's a frivolous lawsuit," Klein-Becker's Nagin said. "The regulations changed years ago and we took (TestroGel) off the market. It's too bad, because it was a great product. They didn't bother to do any due diligence. If they have the temerity to sue, we'll fight vigorously."
Nagin said TestroGel was different from other progesterone products on the market and was completely safe.
Roger Lane Carrick, the attorney representing the California Women's Law Center, said the center hasn't decided to drop Klein-Becker from the action.
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