A Plattsburgh pharmaceutical company and its president, a Canadian citizen, both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor federal drug charges Friday for mislabeling more than $1 million worth of human growth hormone that was imported from China and distributed to pharmacies around the country.
A former Orlando pharmacy, Signature Compounding Pharmacy, whose owners and operators are under indictment in Albany County in a related case, was among the customers of Plattsburgh-based Medisca, Inc., which also has a corporate office in St. Laurent, Quebec.
"I plead guilty," said Antonio Dos Santos, 63, of Montreal, as he stood before U.S. Magistrate David R. Homer.
John L. Pacht, an attorney from Burlington, Vt., then entered a guilty plea on behalf of Medisca.
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, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas A. Capezza, who is handling the case.
"They were saying it was approved by the FDA, when in fact it was not," Capezza said. "It's that false labeling ... that makes it the crime that it is."
As part of the plea agreements Dos Santos, who founded Medisca in 1989, and his company both have agreed to forfeit $1.76 million to the U.S. government. Capezza said that amount represents the company's gross profits from the unlawful drug sales.
It's unclear whether the company ceased importing the human growth hormone in February 2007 because of a law enforcement raid that month of Orlando's Signature Compounding Pharmacy, which had been one of its customers for human growth hormone and controlled substances. The raid by an Orlando task force included Albany County prosecutors who had obtained felony indictments in Albany against Signature's operators related to the alleged sale of performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids, to customers that included pro athletes and celebrities.
"Our office became aware that Medisca was the primary supplier of Signature for certain controlled substances and HGH," said Christopher P. Baynes, chief prosecutor of the financial crimes unit for the Albany County district attorney's office.
Baynes said a state Health Department Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement investigator had traveled to Plattsburgh and interviewed Medisca officials as part of their probe of Signature pharmacy.
Capezza said federal prosecutors in Albany were focused on Medisca.
"For us the focus was really on the distribution to pharmacies .... and then what the pharmacies did with it was the subject of a broader investigation by various U.S. attorneys' offices and the district attorney in Albany County," Capezza said.
Albany prosecutors allege in their charges that Signature was selling growth hormone to people nationwide who had no legitimate medical reason for the drug.
Friday's guilty pleas mark the second time that a supplier of human growth hormone to Signature pharmacy has pleaded guilty to federal drug charges.
Two years ago in Rhode Island federal prosecutors implicated Signature pharmacy in a case in which they said human growth hormone was being smuggled from China to the United States for distribution. The role of the Florida pharmacy was highlighted in a partially sealed criminal case against Victor Martin Effron, an Orlando businessman who pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges.
Signature Pharmacy is identified in Effron's court case by name and also as "pharmacy X." Two Florida physicians, Gary Brandwein and Claire Godfrey, who pleaded guilty to felony criminal charges in Albany related to prescriptions they wrote through Signature pharmacy, also were named in Effron's criminal case.
Dos Santos and his attorneys declined comment as they left federal court. Homer released Dos Santos on his own recognizance pending sentencing scheduled for March 18. Pacht requested additional time so the company can gather the $1.76 million that is supposed to paid by the time of sentencing.
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