McKesson Accused of Illegally Handling Cancer Medications

On April 4, 2018, a lawsuit was unsealed that shows McKesson Corporation – America’s largest drug distributor and one of the top five largest public companies of any kind in America – is being accused of illegally pooling leftover cancer medication from single-dose vials and selling it to healthcare providers. Those healthcare providers then in turn treated patients with it and typically billed the cost to government programs for reimbursement. The lawsuit, brought by a private company, Omni Healthcare, seeks unspecified damages from McKesson for violating the federal False Claims Act by selling the medication and providing kickbacks by offering the pooled drugs at a discount and repackaging them under non-sterile conditions, from 2001 until at least 2010. The lawsuit was brought under the qui tam  provisions and the federal government, thirty states, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Chicago all joined as plaintiffs. Allegedly, McKesson produced and sold pre-filled syringes containing drugs for cancer and its side effects to oncology centers, hospitals, and physicians. To ensure that each syringe could be properly filled, each vial contained up to ten percent more than would be necessary to fill the syringe. Additionally, since the vials did not contain any preservatives, once the vial was punctured, the medication was out in the open, available to be contaminated. Because of the possibility of contamination, the distributor is supposed to dispose of the par...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs