According to HP Ingredients, CortiSlim, developed by Shawn Talbott of GLH Nutrition, saw $200m in sales in its first 12 months on the market.
Talbott has made four patent applications covering Citricoma, and conducted a clinical trial on its efficacy in weight loss, energy, and mood, said HP Ingredients. The 12-week study is said to have involved 29 moderately overweight men and women.
"In this study, all the subjects were moderately overweight as judged by their BMI and were already exercising and watching their diets," said Talbott in a statement. "Our program actually encouraged them to exercise less and eat more."
"When we added the Citricoma supplement, they continued to lose weight throughout the 12-week period, showed significantly lower cholesterol levels, especially LDL, and experienced better mood and higher energy levels."
NutraIngredients-USA's call to Talbott was not returned, and further details of the study (including whether it has been published in a scientific journal or is intended to be) were not available.
Dieticians generally advise that people take calories-in versus calories-out approach to weight loss, eating sensible balanced meals and stepping up exercise. At a time when 64 percent of Americans are overweight and 30 percent, there is a huge market for product that offer an easier way to shift the pounds.
Like CortiSlim, the explanation of the mechanism behind Citricoma is based around its modulation of cortisol, a primary stress hormone that is linked to increased appetite and weight gain.
HP Ingredients said it is funding a second study for Citricoma and weight loss. The double-blind, placebo-controlled human clinical trial involving 50 subjects is to be completed by March.
Annie Engg, president of HP Ingredients, said that Citricoma has "tremendous potential for several markets: weight management, cholesterol management, anti-aging, fitness and sports nutrition, and energy."
However CortiSlim has recently attracted negative publicity after being targeted by the FTC over marketing claims.
In early January the marketers of four well-known dietary supplements, including CortiSlim, settled with the FTC over claims of deceptive marketing. The final settlements over CortiSlim involved Talbott as well as Stephen Cheng of Window Rock Enterprises and Gregory Cynaumon of Infinity Advertising.
Talbott's September 2005 settlement with FTC required him to give up $1.12m in assets and additional cash and equity.
According to the federal agency, complaints were filed against marketers, alleging that the weight-loss and weight-control claims they made were not supported by reliable scientific evidence.
The advertising campaign for CortiSlim ran nationwide and FTC alleged that advertising claims of the product's ability to cause rapid, substantial, and permanent weight loss in all users were false or unsubstantiated.
Update
In a response to this article, Annie Eng said:
"We intend to launch Citricoma with full respect of both the scientific community and consumers, and that's why we have committed to conduct an additional human clinical to help substantiate our product claims. We understand that it's difficult to control the marketers of what they should or should not say. We will help them by giving them our approved claims."