Somehow, because I followed the advice of Dr. Andy Rosenfarb and decided to try astaxanthin and MSM drops to help my central vision—and then blogged about it when I noticed that the combo seemed to help my visual acuity, I’ve found myself in the middle of an ugly patent infringement case.
I can’t quite figure out how doing an Amazon search for astaxanthin and then ordering supplements based on customer reviews and dosage has caused attorneys to depose me.
But this is my plea to all of the companies involved in this case: please think about those of us who are fighting to hold onto our sight so that we can see our children grow up and can maintain our jobs and independence. Please think about what it would mean for you if you could no longer see your loved ones or yourself. Think about what it would be like if you had to miss out on seeing new cities and nature and sunsets and artwork. Think about what it mean if you could no longer do the work you love or couldn’t even walk down the street without assistance. Think about the pain of not being able to participate in your children’s activities; to have to stand on the sidelines and watch as your family fades away from you. Think about how it would feel if doctors told you there was no hope for you—that you needed to just suck it up and head to your local Center for the Blind to prepare for your inevitable reality.
If you have managed to discover that astaxanthin can help people with retinal diseases to save their eyesight, then please do the right thing and work together to build awareness and accessibility to help those of us fighting to hold onto whatever vision we have left so that we can continue to see.
Please don’t lose sight of what really matters.
Sincerely,
Ingrid Ricks
Wow, this is a really awful thing to do. I can’t believe it – you have the freedom to express yourself, whatever that may be. If people can post instructions for making homemade bombs online without any problem, I should hope that you, under the same laws, would be allowed to blog about a health option you found helpful. People really suck sometimes. I hope you win this case and (at least metaphorically) kick these people’s asses. Whatever happens, I believe in karma and I think they’d better watch out….. Hang in there and please keep us updated.
Thanks, Alysa. Yeah…I thought I was doing a good thing by sharing my experiences in hopes that it would help others. I hope that these companies start to realize that helping people to save their eyesight is more important than the money they all stand to make. Thanks for your amazing friendship and support. xo
Hi Ingrid,
I posted on your blog after you wrote about this product the first time. I mentioned a company who sold at a higher dosage which was different to the link you used. I sincerely hope that this did not cause any problems, and I wish you all the very best with this as you are fighting for so many of us.
Belinda xx
Thanks for your note, Belinda. Definitely don’t worry about your comment. I think the real issue is that these companies are so focused on the money tbey stand to make off of us that they lose sight of what’s important — helping those of us fighting to save our eyesight to continue to see. Wishing you an amazing Monday.
Let’s settle down before we break a blood vessel here. Not for nothing, but you can still purchase Astaxanthin in any dose up to 12mg and use it without worrying about patents or lawsuits. That’s for those 2 companies and their lawyers to fight over and not for the consumer to fret over. Provided this is natural Astaxanthin from the Haematococcus pluvialis algae, you can go to the health food store and buy any source of HP Astaxanthin and generally you’ll get the same Astaxanthin ingredient as the one contained in the “eye formula”. If the retailer doesn’t make a specific “eye health claim” about their Astaxanthin then there’s no need to worry about getting “deposed”. Get it?? You want a good quality source for an eye formula? Try Dr. Lange’s “Fortifeye Focus”. Contains 6mg Astaxanthin from quality source. Do it!
Well…I’m being deposed for doing an Amazon search on Astaxanthin, selecting a brand based on customer reviews and dosage (12 mg), and then writing about it on this blog. And I think consumers should be concerned if there is an existing nutritional supplement that could benefit them — such as I now understand is claimed in the patent that was issued back in 1996 (which I wasn’t aware of until I was served papers about this case) — yet was never brought to market in the high therapeutic dosages alluded to or discussed publicly. Could be, of course, that there is no hard evidence to support the claims in the patent. But if there is, having access to it is big deal if you happen to be one of us who are losing our eyesight and doing everything we can to hold onto what we have left.
Hmmm….let’s see. To get the dosing mentioned in the patent one would need to down a bottle a day. Why has more progress not been made on this front? Does it help when people take out patents on potential interventions for devastating diseases then sit on them? Creating yet another layer of disincentive for anyone else who might move forward with it, If you do not have the funding to move something forward, then please let the patent go…THis is a widespread problem that crops is’ ugly head up in RP research quite frequently.
Well said. Exactly what I’m wondering.