Human growth hormone supplier fined; linked to Fla. steroids case
By Brendan J. Lyons Thursday, March 15, 2012
ALBANY — A Plattsburgh pharmaceutical company and its president, a Canadian citizen, were fined $15,000 this week for mislabeling more than $1 million worth of human growth hormone that was imported from China and distributed to pharmacies around the country.
The case has ties to a 2007 investigation by the Albany County district attorney's office targeting pharmaceutical companies that illegally sold steroids and other anti-aging drugs.
Antonio Dos Santos, 63, of Montreal and Plattsburgh-based Medisca, Inc., also must forfeit $1.76 million to the U.S. government. Dos Santos and the company pleaded guilty to misdemeanor federal drug charges last October in Albany.
U.S. Magistrate David R. Homer this week ordered Dos Santos to pay a $5,000 fine and the company to pay $10,000.
A former Orlando pharmacy, Signature Compounding Pharmacy, whose owners and operators are under indictment, was among the customers of Medisca, Inc., which also has a corporate office in St. Laurent, Quebec.
John L. Pacht, an attorney from Burlington, Vt., entered a guilty plea on behalf of Medisca last fall.
Plea agreements signed by Dos Santos and Pacht said that between July 2004 and February 2007 Medisca imported 1,737 grams of human growth hormone from China. The criminal accusation is that the company marketed the drug as an "FDA approved drug" which is false, federal prosecutors said.
Dos Santos founded Medisca in 1989. The $1.76 million forfeiture represents the company's gross profits from the unlawful drug sales.
The company ceased importing human growth hormone in February 2007. That month, a multi-agency task force raided Orlando's Signature Compounding Pharmacy. The arrests of Signature's operators were made on warrants filed by Albany County prosecutors who obtained felony indictments against Signature's operators related to the alleged sale of performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids, to customers that included pro athletes and celebrities.
Albany County prosecutors have said Medisca was a primary supplier of Signature pharmacy.
Albany prosecutors allege in their charges that Signature was selling growth hormone to people nationwide who had no legitimate medical reason for the drug.
The plea agreements require Medisca face spot checks by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for one year. The company must pay the costs of those inspections.
Dos Santos had faced up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.
Records show Dos Santos, who founded Medisca in 1989, pleaded guilty to a similar charge for illegally importing shipments of minoxidil (Rogaine), a hair-growing product, from Canada into the United States in 1989, when it was prohibited.
The Minnesota conviction was vacated in 2007 after Dos Santos' lawyers filed a motion arguing his plea was flawed and that minoxidil is now approved for distribution in the United States.
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