Court Halts Co. Importing Drugs From Canada

[klaatu]

The Associated Press
March 31, 2006

WASHINGTON -- A federal court has ordered a New York company to stop importing prescription drugs and forfeit $4,000 in profits, government health officials said Friday.

The consent decree prohibits Canada Care Drugs Inc., along with Claire Ruggiero and her daughter-in-law, Christine Ruggiero, from importing drugs or advertising, promoting or receiving commissions from the importation of drugs, the Food and Drug Administration said.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered the decree March 9. It was disclosed by the FDA Friday.

No telephone listing for the Goshen, N.Y., company or either Ruggiero could be found.

The government filed a lawsuit against the defendants in November 2004, following an FDA investigation. The FDA plans additional inspections to ensure the defendants obey the law.

The lawsuit alleged that the women earned a 10 percent commission by illegally importing the drugs, beginning in November 2003, from Canadian pharmacies that do not manufacture the products and are not required to follow necessary storage and delivery safeguards.

The government said in court papers that the Ruggieros were "well aware" that importing prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies violates the law and threatens public health.

The FDA said illegally imported drugs can pose a public health risk because patients cannot be sure of the quality, safety and effectiveness of the medicines.

The government said the FDA and the Justice Department had warned the defendants of the violations but the women declined to shut down their business.


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"The FDA said illegally imported drugs can pose a public health risk because patients cannot be sure of the quality, safety and effectiveness of the medicines."

Hang on - weren't these drugs being imported from Canada? So Canadian pharmacies aren't stringent about the quality of the drugs they supply? Don't Canadians get really, really pissed about insults like this?

Klaatu

[jardo]

Short answer: yes..

Semi-Medium answer: Didn't even hear about this at all. The Canadian news media doesn't often cover stories about importing/exporting prescription drugs. We're a little preoccupied with the $5 Billion dollars the US owes us in softwood lumber duties, atm (and CNN has the balls to complain about NAFTA and how it screws the US over without meantioning that little detail). The only time I've noticed is when the US was short on flu vaccinnations some time ago, and we had to bail them out of the crisis.

Funny, the US government will buy bulk loads of drugs from Canada, but turn around and tell the American people Canadian drugs aren't safe enough to import.

I was hoping we wouldn't give them any vaccines, maybe then after their hospitals flood with seniors and young children they'd think about taking care of their own people first before worrying about other countries and what they're doing. What the US thinks about our drugs isn't an issue. We know they kick ass (but shhh, they're not supposed to know!).

Ahh I have a habit of saying 'we'.. by 'we' I mean Canada. One big happy drunk stoned terrorist-harbouring homosexual lumberjack curler hockey family, with healthcare.

Reputation Comments on this post:

nice one