Kenneth Road Pharmacy closes its doors after state regulators revoke license
Kenneth Road Pharmacy in Glendale closed its doors last week after state regulators revoked its license, citing improper ownership, as well as the adulteration and misbranding of drugs, records show.
The pharmacy’s owner, Margarita Kazarian, lost her license in 2014 after the California Board of Pharmacy tied another Glendale pharmacy she owned to counterfeit Cialis, an erectile-dysfunction medication, as well as expired medication. When she lost her license, that drugstore, Adams Square Pharmacy, was shut down.
Kazarian subsequently sought to sell her two other pharmacies — Kenneth Road Pharmacy in Glendale and another in West Hills that also closed last week — but the buyer was a longtime employee of Kazarian’s who didn’t have sufficient capital to make the purchase.
The transaction “was not a bona-fide sale,” the board said in its revocation decision. After closing escrow, Kazarian continued to handle the payroll and lease payments, despite agreeing to “resign from being any sort of officer of the company.”
Kazarian’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
In addition to the improper ownership, state investigators found some drugs were adulterated and misbranded.
During two visits to Kenneth Road Pharmacy, one in 2013 and the second about a year later, investigators found color variations among pills in bottles of Diovan, Cymbalta, Crestor, Afeditab and Namenda. One pill’s coating was slightly chipped.
They also found that the color of the manufacturer’s stamp on some pills differed. Those variations were found in one bottle of each of the following drugs: acorvastatin, Aciphex, Afeditab, Crestor, Cymbalta and moxifloxacin.
The variations meant that the pills either came from different bottles, are older than other pills or have been handled more roughly than other pills, according to the board.
The irregularities “indicated to us that the drugs were not what the manufacturer initially put in the bottle, but were somehow put in afterward,” Virginia Herold, executive officer of the pharmacy board, said Tuesday. “We’re not sure where the drugs came from.”
Also, five pill bottles were overfilled. Each label indicated there should be 90 pills in the bottle, but each bottle had anywhere from two to 35 more pills than that.
No patient injuries were reported, Herold said.
Robert Lipp, Kenneth Road Pharmacy’s pharmacist-in-charge, was formally reprimanded for the discrepancies. His license is not subject to a suspension or revocation, Herold said. When reached by phone, he declined to comment.
Herold urged patients to be vigilant and look for color consistency when taking medications.
“Medication becomes poison if it’s not the right drug for you,” she said.
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Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com
Twitter: @atchek
