Dodgy Max Markson Slapped Down By Fed Agency $26K Fine

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has slapped high-profile celebrity agent Max Markson with $26,640 in fines for advertising a device he allegedly claimed could protect users from the coronavirus.

The $1995 Plasma Medicine Device by Bionic Air is billed as using “quantum physics” to clean and purify the air to reduce bacteria and viruses.

According to the TGA, Markson’s agency Markson Sparks claimed in an email to subscribers that the device could prevent COVID-19 and that it was safe for the elderly; both of these claims are prohibited under therapeutic goods regulations.

Adj. Professor John Skerritt, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health, said the TGA is clamping down on COVID claims.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the TGA is determined to stamp out advertising which makes unlawful claims about the cure or prevention of COVID-19.

“Advertising targeting vulnerable groups, including seniors, is of particular concern to the TGA during these challenging times,” he said.

Markson has denied the allegations, telling the Sydney Morning Herald that the TGA had “jumped the gun” and that neither he nor Bionic Air had ever claimed the device could cure COVID-19; he also pointed out that it is registered as a safe medical device with the TGA.

Bionic Air markets the Plasma Medicine Device Mk II as “a therapeutic device to replicate nature’s beneficial negative ions of Oxygen at a size small enough to be inhaled into the lungs to enter that bloodstream for true biological benefit”.