Impostors of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) online are endorsing a milk supplement that allegedly treats diabetes. It is not true.
The PGH is not promoting any product, and the supplement — Glufarelin — is unlicensed.
On April 12, the FB page Philippine General Hospital News shared a link from the site (PUBLICHEALTHS.COM).
Its thumbnail bore a fake ABS-CBN quote card showing a certain Dr. Neal Barnard, described as an “ex-IATF adviser”, talking about a “very effective way of treating diabetes.” The media organization did not publish such graphics.
When clicked, the link leads to a bogus site using the name and logo of the PGH, and underneath is a blog post stating that Glufarelin, a “high-tech diabetic dairy product”, can “help stabilize blood pressure and prevent heart attack and stroke” among other feats. The advertisement further claims that patients taking Glufarelin “will be completely cured without relapse” and will “no longer need to inject insulin and take medication.”
Glufarelin is neither registered as a food nor drug with the Food and Drug Administration.
VERA Files Fact Check has debunked other fraudulent ads promoting the same product last year. (Read Glufarelin does NOT treat diabetes)
Fake endorsements
The PGH has disowned the circulating post.
PGH Public Affairs Coordinator Dr. Jose Jonas Del Rosario said in an April 21 Viber message to VERA Files Fact Check that the page Philippine General Hospital News is “not authorized or doesn’t represent PGH.”
The hospital also posted advisories on its official website and FB page to declare it does not endorse any product and warns the public against fake pages.
The hospital’s official website is pgh.gov.ph.
ABS-CBN News also said it did not publish the quote card that erroneously listed Barnard as a former “Inter-Agency Task Force adviser.”
Barnard, a physician and a nutrition researcher, has not endorsed the product and neither has the Department of Health, which the page claimed in the comment section.
Several scam formats used
The bogus site promises netizens discounts and asks for their personal information to purchase the product. VERA Files Fact Check has observed this red flag in other similar scams selling health products.
At least six other websites are promoting Glufarelin using the same strategy of misrepresentation, only changing the names of doctors and organizations in each version.
Other organizations used were the Manila Doctors Hospital and the National Institutes of Health. Photos and names of doctors Raul Destura, Jorge M. Garcia, Willie and Liza Ong, Jaime Dy-Liacco, Kilimanjaro Tiwaquen and Tony Leachon were also used to promote the product.
Meanwhile, other fake ads for Glufarelin featured unidentified persons in doctors’ gowns to entice netizens into buying the product.
VERA Files also fact-checked a false advertisement that promoted a different unregistered diabetes cure last week.
(Read ‘ABS-CBN’ impostor sites post FAKE story on ‘diabetes cure’)
The post by the FB page Philippine General Hospital News (created on March 10, 2022 under the name Shop Hot) garnered 6,700 reactions, 749 comments and 1,000 shares.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
