The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7211 p205
17 August 2002

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US pharmacists convicted of fraud

Two American pharmacists, along with two doctors and four pharmacy and medical equipment company owners, have been convicted of defrauding the American Medicare scheme of millions of dollars between 1993 and 1997. Eighteen other defendants pleaded guilty before the five-and-a-half month trial.

The conspiracy centred on four pharmacies in Miami which manufactured solutions for nebulisation containing albuterol (salbutamol), metaproterenol (orciprenaline), isoetharine or acetylcysteine. Patients were paid $50 for the use of their Medicare cards in the fraud, then the doctors ordered unnecessary tests, medical equipment and aerosol medications for $100 per patient. The pharmacies concerned prepared the solutions in unsanitary conditions without weighing the active ingredients and the equipment companies billed Medicare.

"The abuse of trust shown by the licensed pharmacists and doctors who perverted the practice of pharmacy and medicine for personal gain is both disheartening and needlessly harmful to those professions that strive to help those truly in need," said Assistant US Attorney Paul Pelletier.