WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government's allegations that AmerisourceBergen Corporation (ABC), one of the nation's largest wholesale drug companies, illegally repackaged injectable drugs from overfill for cancer patients has resulted in a $625 million settlement.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), ABC, which includes AmerisourceBergen Speciality Group, AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Oncology Supply Company and Medical Initiatives Inc., repackaged oncology-supportive injectable drugs into pre-filled syringes. The company then distributed the syringes to physicians treating cancer patients, the DOJ said.
ABC's actions were an attempt to profit from drug "overfill" by establishing a pre-filled syringe program through a subsidiary the ABC said was a pharmacy but was actually a repacking operation, according to the DOJ.
“The $885 million combined civil and criminal resolution with ABC underscores our determination to utilize all tools at our disposal to pursue illicit schemes that seek to profit from circumvention of important safeguards designed to protect the nation’s drug supply,” DOJ Civil Division assistant attorney general Joseph Hunt said in a statement. “We will continue to be particularly vigilant where these schemes put the health and safety of vulnerable patients at risk.”
“ABC placed corporate profits over patients’ needs, endangering the health of vulnerable cancer patients,” added DOJ U.S. attorney Richard Donoghue.
The ABC settlement also resolves Justice Department allegations that ABC did not submit any sterility or safety data to the FDA regarding its repackaged products and that the company gave kickbacks to physicians to get them to purchase one of the drugs, Procrit, through the pre-filled syringe program, the DOJ said.