Boasting about brushing teeth to cure stomach cancer, "disinfectant" when toothpaste is sold, starting from the bottom of the "anti-ghost toothpaste" pit people "business economy"

"Use this toothpaste to improve mouth sores and prevent stomach cancer", "Adopt the national anti-HP (Helicobacter pylori) patented technology" "Patented formula 100% kill HP to protect the safety of the whole family"... At present, the so-called "anti-ghost toothpaste" is hot on major e-commerce platforms, and the price is much more expensive than conventional toothpaste of the same specification.

Xinhua News Agency reporters learned from the State Food and Drug Administration that Helicobacter pylori colonized in the stomach and could not be prevented or cured by brushing teeth with toothpaste. At present, most of the so-called "anti-ghost toothpaste" sold on the market is under the guise of "patent" and "high-tech", and deceives consumers by placing a large number of false advertisements on some online platforms.

Regulatory authorities: "Anti-Ghost Toothpaste" is suspected of falsely claiming efficacy

Helicobacter pylori (HP) is a chronic infectious pathogen with a high infection rate worldwide, which makes some merchants smell business opportunities.

A Taobao store customer service "assured" to reporters that a certain "anti-ghost toothpaste" in the store can effectively remove Helicobacter pylori, improve bad breath and mouth sores, prevent and treat stomach cancer, and false one pays ten.

The reporter found that in Taobao, Tmall, Jingdong, Pinduoduo and other e-commerce platforms and some offline pharmacies, you can see the so-called "ghost killing artifact" and "prevention of stomach cancer" "anti-ghost toothpaste", with a wide variety of names and considerable sales. Such as You XX Star, You XX Xin, Bi X Stop, Net X Ling, etc., the price of a single stick ranges from tens of yuan to hundreds of yuan, which is 3 to 10 times the price of conventional toothpaste of the same specification. According to the data of the online store, many of them have been traded by tens of thousands of orders per month; some of them claim to be named, developed or produced by Sinopharm Group, Amendment Pharmaceutical, and Southern Medical University.

Is the efficacy really as advertised? Ms. Guiyang Guan told reporters that after being diagnosed with Helicobacter pylori, she spent 400 yuan to buy 4 sticks of "must X stop" and "anti-ghost toothpaste" from the Internet, and after 3 months of use, she was rechecked and found that the value of Helicobacter pylori did not decrease but increased.

Her experience is not alone. Yan Xuemin, attending physician of the Department of Gastroenterology of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said that Helicobacter pylori colonized in the stomach, and there is no scientific basis for relying on the use of toothpaste brushing as an oral cleaning link to prevent and treat. Previously, the "Scientific Rumor Dispelling Platform" sponsored by the China Association for Science and Technology and the National Health Commission also published an article denying that "brushing teeth can cure HP".

Jiang Xuan, chief physician of the Department of Gastroenterology at Tsinghua Changgeng Hospital in Beijing, affiliated to Tsinghua University, said that at present, the treatment of Helicobacter pylori requires a combination of acid suppressants, bismuth, antibiotics and other drugs, and it can achieve good results after treatment for more than half a month.

The State Food and Drug Administration organized relevant expert research that there may be Helicobacter pylori in the mouth, mainly concentrated in the periodontal pocket and gingival groove, and related to periodontal disease, bad breath, stomach cancer and other digestive system diseases, lack of scientific basis. Toothpaste claiming "anti-Helicobacter pylori" efficacy is suspected of false claims.

Unscrupulous merchants: "Fooling" consumers with tricks

"Anti-ghost toothpaste is difficult to resist", but it still becomes a "cash cow" for illegal businesses. The reporter's investigation found that illegal businesses have a whole set of pit people".

------------------------ Helicobacter pylori is indeed harmful to the human body. At present, the adult infection rate in China exceeds 50%. Yan Xuemin said that Helicobacter pylori infection is the main cause of gastritis and peptic ulcer, and it is also a high risk factor for gastric cancer. However, unscrupulous merchants wantonly hype and exaggerate these hazards, and sell goods for profit by creating a terrible atmosphere of talking about "dark" discoloration.

The reporter searched in the e-commerce platform and WeChat public account, and found that some of the "anti-ghost toothpaste" used "small diseases do not cure major diseases, small money does not cost to suffer disasters" and "a toothpaste and a life who is more expensive and difficult to choose? Sensational false propaganda such as "90% of bad breath is caused by Helicobacter pylori" and so on.

-- Raising the value under the guise of "high technology". Self-proclaimed "patented formula", "national patented technology" and "patented innovative technology" are common advertising slogans of "anti-ghost toothpaste". The reporter noted that the outer packaging of "YouXX Star HP Toothpaste" was conspicuously marked with the words "National Invention Patent ZL201410168022.9 Anti-oral Helicobacter pylori Traditional Chinese Medicine Toothpaste", "Invention and Entrepreneurship Gold Award", "Test Report" and so on.

In this regard, the staff of the State Intellectual Property Office told reporters that the current patent application examination is mainly aimed at novelty, inventive step and practicality, as for what kind of efficacy the product produced by the patent is, whether the enterprise and the merchant publicize the product are true, are not within the scope of patent examination.

Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights protection law research society of the Chinese Law Society, said that the so-called "anti-oral Helicobacter pylori toothpaste" patent by the enterprise does not mean that it must have the ability to mass-produce anti-oral HP toothpaste, let alone prove that the toothpaste it produces must have anti-oral HP effect. The "test report" provided by some merchants can only prove that they have carried out research on anti-oral HP care products, and cannot prove that their products have adopted the test results, or that the relevant effects have been achieved after using the results.

-- The "makeover" of the product evades supervision. The person in charge of the relevant work of the State Food and Drug Administration said that according to the "Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Cosmetics" implemented on January 1, 2021, toothpaste refers to the management of ordinary cosmetics, and the application for a license is "makeup name". This means that according to Article 17 of the Advertising Law, advertisements for toothpaste products must not involve disease treatment functions, and must not use medical terms or terms that are likely to confuse the goods being marketed with drugs and medical devices. However, the reporter found that in order to evade supervision, illegal businesses often apply for the so-called "anti-ghost toothpaste" as "mechanical brand number" or "elimination number".

Henan Jinkui Herbal Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. told reporters that it can oem the production of "anti-ghost toothpaste". On the product photos provided by its salesman, the reporter saw that the official product printed on the box of "anti-Yu toothpaste" produced by the company was named "YouXX Xin Cold Compress Gel". The salesman revealed that in the past, the company used the words "mechanical font number" and "gel", which was stopped this year. The salesman told reporters: "If you order, the company can help apply for 'elimination number' as soon as possible, and the name of the product is written 'oral antibacterial paste'." ”

-- Organizing "false advertising" to fool people. The reporter searched for WeChat public accounts, Xiaohongshu and other platforms and found that in addition to "hard advertising", there are many videos and articles that promote and sell "anti-ghost toothpaste" in the name of popular science or product experience. Some accounts also posted links and videos of well-known artists live streaming.

Comprehensive governance: Strengthen supervision and science education at the same time

Experts generally believe that the reason why "anti-ghost toothpaste" has a gap to take advantage of is directly related to the limited or even incorrect knowledge of Helicobacter pylori among ordinary people.

Experts from the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences told reporters that even if patients are confirmed to be infected with HP, they do not need to be overly nervous, and the vast majority of people can achieve bacterial eradication through oral drug treatment within two weeks. There is also a view in the medical community that germs do not necessarily need to be eradicated, and it is recommended that patients and doctors discuss their own indications and decide.

Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Chinese Min University, believes that market supervision departments, food and drug supervision departments, and Internet information departments should form a linkage mechanism, continue to increase supervision, and eliminate regulatory blind spots as much as possible.

The reporter learned that at present, the State Food and Drug Administration has studied and drafted the "Toothpaste Supervision and Management Measures" and is actively promoting the State Administration of Market Regulation to introduce the regulations of the department as soon as possible. The regulations will regulate the whole process of toothpaste products from filing, production and operation.

At the same time, the State Food and Drug Administration will also release popular science information in the near future to guide the public to correctly understand the efficacy of toothpaste and dispose of toothpaste products that falsely claim efficacy according to law.

Source: Xinhua News Agency The original title was "Boasting about brushing teeth to cure stomach cancer, "disinfectant" when toothpaste is sold, the price rises 10 times - from the bottom of the "anti-ghost toothpaste" pit people "business economy""

Reporters: Liu Zhiqiang, Dai Xiaohe, Gu Tiancheng (Participating reporters: Wu Si)

Editor-in-charge: Qin Daixin

Proofreader: Du Xiaojin (intern) Wang Jiayi (intern)