Man Charged in Drug Dilution
The owner of a Kansas City pharmacy was charged Tuesday with diluting chemotherapy drugs to save money.
“There could literally be hundreds of patients who received improper dosages,” said FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza.
Robert R. Courtney, 48, who owns Research Medical Tower Pharmacy, was charged with a single felony count of misbranding and adulteration of a drug.
Courtney was accused of dispensing two chemotherapy drugs in amounts that were a fraction of what had been prescribed. Federal authorities said Courtney’s prescriptions contained between 39% and just 1% of the dose ordered by doctors.
The pharmacist could have shaved $780 of his cost off just one prescription, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
A worker at the pharmacy said Courtney wasn’t available to comment, and that no one else at the pharmacy could comment. Courtney’s attorney did not return a call Tuesday.
Lanza said Courtney would surrender to the FBI in Kansas City today. The case involves the drugs Gemzar and Taxol. Taxol is a therapy for advanced ovarian or breast cancer and Gemzar for pancreatic cancer and some types of lung cancer.
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