Doctor's lotion a head scratcher

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/13330792.htm

USING SKIN CLEANSER AS LICE CURE PRESENTS ETHICAL QUESTIONS

By Dan Reed

Mercury News


Stanford medical school instructor Dale Pearlman: head lice hero or flimflam man?

While the question might have some scratching their noggins, Pearlman insists it's the former.

Last year, the dermatologist from Menlo Park made headlines with his clinical study about his super-duper lotion, ``Nuvo,'' that one slathers on and then dries to kill the little buggers by suffocation.

Now, in a letter to be published today in the journal Pediatrics, he admits his special goo was an over-the-counter skin cleanser available at just about every drugstore in the nation for under 10 bucks.

His price for his clinical trials? More than $200.

So, one might ask, why not just tell people to buy Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser at the local drugstore and blow-dry it so it seals off the breathing holes of the little louses? It sure would have been cheaper for those parents who paid for Nuvo and their kids' treatments.

Pearlman said it was because he had to prove his theory. And if his patients knew it was so easy, they wouldn't participate.

``I didn't want people to know they could just cruise out the door and go buy it at the drugstore,'' he said Sunday. ``How could you do your research? And because I didn't reveal that, we were able to do a complete research study.''

And frankly, he said, knowing it was so easy to buy and do would make it kind of hard to market it. ``A pharmaceutical company would say, `Wait, Doc, if somebody can just buy it at the drugstore, why would we buy your patent?' ''

Brent Petersen, communications manager for Cetaphil's maker, Galderma Laboratories LP of Fort Worth, Texas, called Pearlman's tactics ``a bit misleading'' and said the company knew nothing about Pearlman's use of Cetaphil until learning of his letter.

The lotion may also be used for topping ice cream and runny noses. - eb