After Heparin: - The Pew Charitable Trusts

PHARMACEUTICAL DISTRIBUTION
As distinct from diverted drugs, outright counterfeits—products that imitate the dosage or packaging of
a licensed manufacturer—may also enter regular distribution channels. In 2001, counterfeit Serostim ® ,
a human growth hormone used to treat AIDS-related wasting, was found in at least seven states and
passed through multiple wholesalers. 464–466 (The manufacturer of Serostim ® has since put in place a
secured distribution program, with a unique serial number assigned to each vial that must be verified by
the dispensing pharmacy.) 467
Case study 6
Medicaid drugs purchased on the streets and
resold into distribution
Two men were convicted in 2008 for selling diverted Medicaid drugs back into distribution, where
the drugs ultimately reached pharmacies and unsuspecting patients. 468 According to the U.S.
Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, a man named Michael Manno purchased the
drugs—including medicines for treating cancer and controlling cholesterol, as well as human growth
hormone—from Medicaid patients in New York. 469 Manno, based in New Jersey, sold the drugs to
Patrick Bronder in Boca Raton, Florida. 470
Manno and Bronder made more than $6.8 million by selling the drugs to a Florida wholesaler,
who eventually sold the diverted drugs to pharmacies that dispensed them to patients. 471 Patients
receiving the drugs were unaware that these medicines already had been dispensed to someone
else, held under potentially unsafe conditions, and then issued to them as if they were a safe and
legitimate product. 472
This example of diversion of prescription drugs from the street, which took place in 2001 and
2002, 473 is not unique. In 2010, three men were indicted for distributing prescription drugs without
a license. 474 Between 2002 and 2005, the defendants allegedly purchased drugs from the street and
from other unlicensed sources. 475 The men allegedly used these drugs to fill orders they solicited
from pharmacies. By shipping the diverted medicine through a licensed wholesaler in Texas, they
grossed more than $13 million. 476
After Heparin: PRotecting Consumers from the Risks of Substandard and Counterfeit Drugs 65