A Chinese toothpaste brand is currently in the hot seat for reportedly using Western, prescription drugs and engaging in false advertising. The packaging has completely eliminated information about the toothpaste containing Tranexamic acid. The promotional campaigns for the toothpaste did not mention this ingredient as well.
Tranexamic acid is a drug used to treat excessive bleeding during surgical operations, tooth-removal, and more other cases. The problem is that the brand, Yunnan Baiyao Toothpaste is advertised and marketed as a product with traditional healing powers, because of its herbal ingredients.
Du Xianjian and his fiancee, two medical practitioners, alleged that the toothpaste brand is not using entirely herbal products to prevent bleeding gums. Instead, tranexamic acid is included in the ingredients. Their disclosure was done on Weibo on Sunday, the post of which has already been taken down.
"Yunnan Baiyao's packaging says the toothpaste's active ingredient can help reduce gum disease ... but it never advertises that its product also includes Western ingredients, like tranexamic acid," the fiancée who stayed anonymous, wrote on her Jinri Toutiao account. She added that this is clearly a public deception.
The public is described as wholeheartedly trusting the brand for its promotion of the toothpaste as containing full and reliable Chinese herbal ingredients, which is not the case at all. The company is also accused of taking advantage of Chinese people's resistance to Western medicine, even though it is indeed using Western prescription drugs.
The company had replied to the allegations by stating firmly that it adheres to China's regulations on toothpaste ingredients and even international health standards. The problem with the statement is that it presented no clarification on whether the tranexamic acid is really an ingredient or if it the herbal ingredients are genuinely the ones preventing bleeding gums.
A doctoral student, You Hu, of traditional Chinese medicine at the Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, however, claimed there is no real reason to put the company in a hot seat. He disclosed to Jiangsu News Broadcast that authorities already certified the active ingredients acting as the key to stopping bleeding gums found in the toothpaste. The tranexamic acid was merely used as a cheaper alternative, and even if this is the case, there is no need to negate the effectiveness of Yunnan Baiyao.
The student also argued that it is essential to recognize the reciprocal relationship of Chinese and Western medicines because they are not that at odds with each other.
