Claim: Manila Doctors Hospital internist-cardiologist Dr. Anthony Leachon, a former adviser of the National Task Force against COVID-19, endorses Sleepal Gold Colostrum, a product that claims to cure insomnia.
Rating: FALSE
Why we fact-checked this: The claim was sent to Rappler via Viber for checking.
The claim shows an alleged quote by Leachon endorsing the product as an effective cure for insomnia. A Facebook post supposedly published on Leachon’s official page on July 9 also includes a link to the product.
The facts: In a text message to Rappler, Leachon said both the ad and the quote attributed to him are “fake.”
According to the doctor, several people have been reaching out to him about the legitimacy of the product, including some of his patients. However, he clarified that the ads are fake and used his name without permission.
The July 9 Facebook post is also fabricated and is nowhere to be found on Leachon’s official page.
Fake FDA website: The Sleepal Gold Colostrum ad included a link that redirects to a website with the uniform resource locator “fda-ph.net,” making it seem like a page of the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
However, this page is fake, as the official website of the FDA is “https://www.fda.gov.ph.” Like other official government websites of the Philippines, the FDA website has a domain name that ends with “.gov.ph.”
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Unverified product: The product Sleepal Gold Colostrum endorsed in the post is also not on the FDA’s list of registered products.
Similar claims: Rappler had debunked a similar post that used Leachon’s identity to promote a supposed cure for hypertension. The post showed a clip of Leachon and ABS-CBN News Channel host Karen Davila that was manipulated using artificial intelligence tools to falsely imply their endorsement of the product.
In response to the manipulated video, Leachon told Rappler: “I’m trying to inform my followers and other patients about this anomaly but it seems that we need to do something drastic with the media’s help.”
In August 2023, Leachon filed an identity theft case against several herbal and organic products that used his name in misleading advertisements. – Lorenz Pasion/Rappler.com
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