Dodgy diet supplement received taxpayer money

26 FEBRUARY 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that Callaghan Innovation gave taxpayer money to Promisia for the development of Arthrem, a supplement now linked to liver harm in 14 people. Users of the supplement have reported hepatitis, jaundice, and abnormal liver function.

Last year, the supplement’s producer, Promisia, said that funding from Callaghan Innovation was “a critical factor in establishing the scientific credibility of Arthrem”.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Louis Houlbrooke says, “We should judge Callaghan Innovation’s spending of taxpayer money by its results, and this result is an extremely embarrassing one.”

“The taxpayer is funding forty per cent of Promisia’s research and development costs. Businesses tend to be careless when they’re spending taxpayer money, and this case of corporate welfare could be deadly.”

This comes after the NBR reported that Callaghan-backed incubator Powerhouse, which received $1.55m in government funding last year, has a plunging share price and is now being evaluated by a Callaghan-appointed investigator.

“In other words, millions in taxpayer-funded grants and loans are likely to have been wasted.”

“These recent failures would be tolerable if taxpayers received dividends from successful corporate welfare spending. But we don’t. With corporate welfare, the taxpayer never wins.”

ENDS

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