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DENVER (AP) -- Attorneys for the Food and Drug Administration are expected to ask a federal appeals court later today to restore a ban on dietary supplements containing low doses of ephedra.
The FDA banned the weight-loss aid two years ago after it was linked to dozens of deaths.
A Utah federal judge struck down a ban on small doses of ephedra last year after Park City (Utah)-based Nutraceutical Corporation filed a lawsuit to challenge it.
The FDA is appealing that ruling.
The agency said the federal judge misunderstood the way that the agency applied the law, and rejected scientific evidence demonstrating that even low doses of ephedra present an unreasonable risk of illness or injury.
Nutraceutical claimed the FDA misinterpreted the law, and failed to prove that low doses are harmful.
The judge agreed, and said the FDA failed to properly consider the difference between low and high doses.
Low doses are defined as ten milligrams a day, or less.
Arguments in the FDA's appeal are scheduled later today in the Denver-based Tenth US Circuit Court of Appeals.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
