FDA Should Pull Misleading ‘Sunscreen Pills' From the Market, Schumer Says

A handful of pills that markets themselves as alternatives to sunscreen should be pulled from shelves due to their misleading and potentially hazardous claims, Sen. Chuck Schumer said.

The Food and Drug Administration recently warned consumers that so-called "suncreen pills" are fakes that don't actually provide the same benefits and protection as sunscreen. 

Schumer on Sunday said the FDA should go one step further and ask retailers to pull the companies’ products from the market.

“The FDA should be burning mad at the handful of companies marketing shady pills and capsules as a new alternative to long-tested SPF sun protection,” Schumer said.

“Failing to effectively rein in these marketing attempts would be a glaring error by the FDA and so they must turn up the enforcement heat before consumers literally get burned," he added.

The FDA specifically called out Sunsafe Rx pills, Solicare pills — which can be purchased at Walmart — Sunergetic pills and Advanced Skin Brightening Formula pills.

Sunsafe Rx’s Instagram ads depict sunbathers “basking at beaches and pools, amongst other places, while being ‘protected’ by the pills,” Schumer’s office said.

The FDA should either permanently remove the companies’ products from the market, or remove them until the companies “clean up their act[s], especially on social media,” his office added.

In a statement on Sunday, Napa Valley Bioscience, the company that develops Sunsafe Rx, maintained some people use the product for "supplemental protection," while some people with "very sensitive skin" use it to "help them prevent some of their adverse reactions to sunlight."

"We don't market Sunsafe Rx as a sunscreen and we certainly don't tell consumers that they don't need any other protection from the sun or that they don't also need to use a topical sunscreen," the company said.

The three other companies cited by the FDA didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.