loss founded 1980 headquarters owings mills maryland united states key people michael c. macdonald chairman and ceo products medifast diet revenue us 285.3 million 2014 1 operating income us 30.2 million 2014 1 net income us 13.2 million 2014 1 total assets us 115.9 million 2014 1 total equity us 80.5 million 2014 1 number of employees 808 2014 2 website www.medifast1.com medifast inc. is an american nutrition and weight loss company based in owings mills maryland . the company owns five subsidiaries jason pharmaceuticals inc. jason take shape for life inc. tsfl jason enterprises inc. jason properties llc and seven crondall llc . medifast produces distributes and sells weight loss and other health related products through websites multi level marketing telemarketing franchised weight loss clinics and medical professionals . the company is public with a market capitalization of 405 million as of october 2014 . 2 medifast was founded in 1980 by william vitale a medical doctor . 3 his products were sold directly to other doctors who in turn prescribed them to their patients . the company is publicly traded on the new york stock exchange symbol med . on july 17 1995 healthrite predecessor of medifast changed its name from vitamin specialties corp. in october 2010 medifast was ranked number 1 on forbes magazine s list of america s 100 best small companies . 4 the company was ranked 18th as of the 2014 list . 2 in september 2012 medifast s subsidiary jason pharmaceuticals paid a 3.7 million usd civil penalty for false advertising . the federal trade commission and united states department of justice said that advertisements for the medifast 5 & 1 plan low calorie diet told consumers they could lose up to 2 5 pounds per week . and that these weight loss claims lacked a reasonable scientific basis and were unsubstantiated . under the settlement any future claims made by the company must be backed by at least one human clinical study . 5 6 references edit a b c d e medifast inc. financials . a b c medifast on the forbes america s best small companies list . forbes . retrieved july 16 2015 . medifast history forbes america s 100 best small companies david ingram september 7 2012 . medifast unit settles false ad claims for 3.7 million . reuters . retrieved 2012 09 09 . lewis truman september 10 2012 . medifast subsidiary agrees to 3.7 million penalty . consumeraffairs.com . retrieved july 16 2015 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title medifast & oldid 735791952 categories companies listed on the new york stock exchangecompanies based in baltimore county marylandlow carbohydrate dietsmulti level marketing companieshidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 23 august 2016 at 03 59 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view