United States v. El-O-Pathic Pharmacy United States v. Hudson Products Co.

This is an appeal from an order of the district court denying permanent injunctions in consolidated cases in which the government sought to restrain appellees from introducing certain allegedly misbranded drugs, known as hormones, into interstate commerce, and, further, to enjoin them from causing any acts to be done with respect to such drugs that would result in their being allegedly misbranded in intrastate commerce, in claimed violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, as amended, Title 21 U.S.C.A. § 301 et seq.

The government’s complaint asking for injunctions in the district court thus specified two types of prohibited acts which it alleged appellees violated; and the circumstances giving rise to such complaint are as follows: It appears that the hormones in question are manufactured by pharmaceutical corporations in the eastern part of the United States and shipped to ap-pellees in California with labeling that states, in part, “Caution: To be dispensed only by or on the prescription of a physician.” Thereafter, the appellees relabel the drugs to eliminate this prescription statement; and the new labeling, it was claimed, caused the drugs to become…