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American Morning

AIDS Drug Entering Black Market

Aired June 03, 2003 - 08:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, I want to fit in some health and legal news for you. It concerns body builders who are getting pumped up by a drug that actually was designed to treat AIDS patients, and their appetite has fueled millions of dollars in illegal sales. The drugs, Serostim -- that's how you say it -- is a human growth hormone. It was approved by the FDA back in 1996. It is meant to prevent severe weight loss in AIDS patients, a condition known as AIDS wasting.
Sales have totaled more than $350 million in the past three years. Serostim also helps build muscle quickly with a few side effects, and so a black market has emerged where body builders buy the drug at a fraction of the cost.

Joining us now, William Comiskey, a New York deputy attorney general, working with the Medicaid fraud unit. Dave Palumbo, a professional body builder and founder of "RX Muscle" magazine, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta at CNN Center.

We are going to get to the science of this in just a minute, but first, Mr. Comiskey, I want to bring you in here and explain to us the scam, and I think of what would be of most interest to people at home, how taxpayers end up picking up the bill for this.

WILLIAM COMISKEY, NEW YORK DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: This is an enormous crime. There's no question. The diversion of controlled substances and prescription drugs is a major industry. Serostim is at the top of it in the diversion of that. In New York alone, one drug, the diversion of that drug has cost an estimated $80 million in the last four years to citizens in the state of New York.

Across the nation, it's a major problem in every state. It's driven by two things. There's a black market with two customer sources. One, body builders who are interested in its supposed benefits to their -- their exercise and their athletic endeavors, and secondly, to black market pharmacists who use the drugs, buy it at a low dollar amount, and resell it.

KAGAN: They are buying it from AIDS patients who get a legitimate prescription.

COMISKEY: They buy it from AIDS patients, they buy it from whatever black market source they can get it because the cost of the drug is so high that they'll increase their profit on the drug, five times, six times and make a lot of money.

So they'll sell and put back into the market black market drugs to unsuspecting AIDS patients.

KAGAN: All right. Sanjay, let's bring you in here and explain to us the science, a little bit about how it works, why it works for AIDS patients, and what the benefit would be to a bodybuilder.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, this is a growth hormone derivative. Certainly, people have talked a lot about growth hormone as possibly being the fountain of youth. The problem with growth hormone in its natural form is that it causes all sorts of problems in the body, including skeletal distortions, people get these protruding foreheads sometimes, widening of the area above the nose, things like that. It can also age some of the organs inside the body much more quickly.

So this is actually a derivative of that, synthetic, that doesn't have as many of those side effects, at least not in the population of patients for which it was designed which, again, is AIDS patients. It was released back in '96 to basically counter something known as AIDS wasting. People were noticing that a lot of patients with AIDS were getting a lot of muscle wasting, along with some skeletal wasting. This medication was basically designed to try and counter some of that, and it worked pretty effectively, but it was never tested, really, for safety or effectiveness in people with non-AIDS wasting, which is where a little bit of the discrepancy arises -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Dave. This is where we bring our body bodybuilder in here. First, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't ask you flat out, have you, yourself ever taken Serostim?

DAVE PALUMBO, BODYBUILDER: Oh, I don't think that's a relevant question...

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: But I need to know, have you taken it?

PALUMBO: The relevancy is the athletes in general. All professional athletes, probably, at one time or another have experimented with it because of its regenerative qualities.

KAGAN: Are we going to go around that question, are you saying you're not comfortable answering whether you have taken it or not?

PALUMBO: I don't think it's relevant to the subject we're talking about.

KAGAN: Well, it is relevant, but if you're going to skip it, we'll just skip it and move on and get the questions that you're going to ask -- that you are going to answer, perhaps. How prevalent is it, then, in body building?

PALUMBO: I think that -- not only in bodybuilding. I think to pigeonhole bodybuilders just would be silly, but I think all professional athletes use it, because Serostim or growth hormone in general has tremendous regenerative effects on the body, so they can obviously recover better from their workouts. It enables them to train harder and achieve a higher level of conditioning, and that's the -- and in addition, it doesn't have the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) side effects of liver toxicity or any kind of kidney problems, whereas -- which anabolic steroids, they're very regenerate (ph) to those organs.

KAGAN: So you are saying you think it's good stuff to put in your body? As many of us who would love to be in great shape and have great miles (ph), and do all that, the idea of putting a substance like this in your body, I think, kind of goes beyond what most of us are willing to do.

PALUMBO: I think you're incorrect. I think a lot of people are using it cosmetically, especially in the movie industry because it helps the skin look much tighter, it keeps you looking younger, and it does maintain your hair, nails, and your whole body with a much more athletic look. I think that is desirable. I think that the problem is that people aren't using doctors to prescribe it and monitor their use.

KAGAN: Right, and Mr. Comiskey, let's bring you back in here. The problem, as far as the state of New York and other states like California are concerned is that the people who are given this drug are selling it -- or many are selling it, and tax payers end up paying the bill.

PALUMBO: The problem is threefold, as I see it. One, we're paying for things that are fraudulent transactions where there's corruption of the health care industry. Two, people who need the drug aren't getting it, because for the small dollar return that they are getting, the relatively small, they are willing to compromise their own health to get that money, and three, the black market is so good that pharmacists, corrupt pharmacists, are putting drugs from the black market back into the mainstream so that unsuspecting AIDS patients who need the drugs are getting compromised drugs. So there is health care consequences across the board.

KAGAN: Real quickly, the state of New York going after individuals or drug companies?

COMISKEY: Well, we're going after everybody who is involved in the black market. That includes pharmacists, providers, companies if they're involved, individuals who facilitate it across the board. We'll be looking at that.

KAGAN: Because bottom line, whether they think Serostim is a good thing or not, probably most taxpayers don't want to pay for body builders or athletes or actors...

COMISKEY: I can tell you Medicaid certainly doesn't in the state of New York, and this is a national problem. No one in the Medicaid system wants to pay tax dollars for this.

KAGAN: All right. Gentlemen, sorry, we are out of time just because we have the breaking news coming out of Egypt. I apologize for cutting that short. Thank you to all of you. Sanjay, thank you to you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired June 3, 2003 - 08:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, I want to fit in some health and legal news for you. It concerns body builders who are getting pumped up by a drug that actually was designed to treat AIDS patients, and their appetite has fueled millions of dollars in illegal sales. The drugs, Serostim -- that's how you say it -- is a human growth hormone. It was approved by the FDA back in 1996. It is meant to prevent severe weight loss in AIDS patients, a condition known as AIDS wasting.
Sales have totaled more than $350 million in the past three years. Serostim also helps build muscle quickly with a few side effects, and so a black market has emerged where body builders buy the drug at a fraction of the cost.

Joining us now, William Comiskey, a New York deputy attorney general, working with the Medicaid fraud unit. Dave Palumbo, a professional body builder and founder of "RX Muscle" magazine, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta at CNN Center.

We are going to get to the science of this in just a minute, but first, Mr. Comiskey, I want to bring you in here and explain to us the scam, and I think of what would be of most interest to people at home, how taxpayers end up picking up the bill for this.

WILLIAM COMISKEY, NEW YORK DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: This is an enormous crime. There's no question. The diversion of controlled substances and prescription drugs is a major industry. Serostim is at the top of it in the diversion of that. In New York alone, one drug, the diversion of that drug has cost an estimated $80 million in the last four years to citizens in the state of New York.

Across the nation, it's a major problem in every state. It's driven by two things. There's a black market with two customer sources. One, body builders who are interested in its supposed benefits to their -- their exercise and their athletic endeavors, and secondly, to black market pharmacists who use the drugs, buy it at a low dollar amount, and resell it.

KAGAN: They are buying it from AIDS patients who get a legitimate prescription.

COMISKEY: They buy it from AIDS patients, they buy it from whatever black market source they can get it because the cost of the drug is so high that they'll increase their profit on the drug, five times, six times and make a lot of money.

So they'll sell and put back into the market black market drugs to unsuspecting AIDS patients.

KAGAN: All right. Sanjay, let's bring you in here and explain to us the science, a little bit about how it works, why it works for AIDS patients, and what the benefit would be to a bodybuilder.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, this is a growth hormone derivative. Certainly, people have talked a lot about growth hormone as possibly being the fountain of youth. The problem with growth hormone in its natural form is that it causes all sorts of problems in the body, including skeletal distortions, people get these protruding foreheads sometimes, widening of the area above the nose, things like that. It can also age some of the organs inside the body much more quickly.

So this is actually a derivative of that, synthetic, that doesn't have as many of those side effects, at least not in the population of patients for which it was designed which, again, is AIDS patients. It was released back in '96 to basically counter something known as AIDS wasting. People were noticing that a lot of patients with AIDS were getting a lot of muscle wasting, along with some skeletal wasting. This medication was basically designed to try and counter some of that, and it worked pretty effectively, but it was never tested, really, for safety or effectiveness in people with non-AIDS wasting, which is where a little bit of the discrepancy arises -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Dave. This is where we bring our body bodybuilder in here. First, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't ask you flat out, have you, yourself ever taken Serostim?

DAVE PALUMBO, BODYBUILDER: Oh, I don't think that's a relevant question...

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: But I need to know, have you taken it?

PALUMBO: The relevancy is the athletes in general. All professional athletes, probably, at one time or another have experimented with it because of its regenerative qualities.

KAGAN: Are we going to go around that question, are you saying you're not comfortable answering whether you have taken it or not?

PALUMBO: I don't think it's relevant to the subject we're talking about.

KAGAN: Well, it is relevant, but if you're going to skip it, we'll just skip it and move on and get the questions that you're going to ask -- that you are going to answer, perhaps. How prevalent is it, then, in body building?

PALUMBO: I think that -- not only in bodybuilding. I think to pigeonhole bodybuilders just would be silly, but I think all professional athletes use it, because Serostim or growth hormone in general has tremendous regenerative effects on the body, so they can obviously recover better from their workouts. It enables them to train harder and achieve a higher level of conditioning, and that's the -- and in addition, it doesn't have the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) side effects of liver toxicity or any kind of kidney problems, whereas -- which anabolic steroids, they're very regenerate (ph) to those organs.

KAGAN: So you are saying you think it's good stuff to put in your body? As many of us who would love to be in great shape and have great miles (ph), and do all that, the idea of putting a substance like this in your body, I think, kind of goes beyond what most of us are willing to do.

PALUMBO: I think you're incorrect. I think a lot of people are using it cosmetically, especially in the movie industry because it helps the skin look much tighter, it keeps you looking younger, and it does maintain your hair, nails, and your whole body with a much more athletic look. I think that is desirable. I think that the problem is that people aren't using doctors to prescribe it and monitor their use.

KAGAN: Right, and Mr. Comiskey, let's bring you back in here. The problem, as far as the state of New York and other states like California are concerned is that the people who are given this drug are selling it -- or many are selling it, and tax payers end up paying the bill.

PALUMBO: The problem is threefold, as I see it. One, we're paying for things that are fraudulent transactions where there's corruption of the health care industry. Two, people who need the drug aren't getting it, because for the small dollar return that they are getting, the relatively small, they are willing to compromise their own health to get that money, and three, the black market is so good that pharmacists, corrupt pharmacists, are putting drugs from the black market back into the mainstream so that unsuspecting AIDS patients who need the drugs are getting compromised drugs. So there is health care consequences across the board.

KAGAN: Real quickly, the state of New York going after individuals or drug companies?

COMISKEY: Well, we're going after everybody who is involved in the black market. That includes pharmacists, providers, companies if they're involved, individuals who facilitate it across the board. We'll be looking at that.

KAGAN: Because bottom line, whether they think Serostim is a good thing or not, probably most taxpayers don't want to pay for body builders or athletes or actors...

COMISKEY: I can tell you Medicaid certainly doesn't in the state of New York, and this is a national problem. No one in the Medicaid system wants to pay tax dollars for this.

KAGAN: All right. Gentlemen, sorry, we are out of time just because we have the breaking news coming out of Egypt. I apologize for cutting that short. Thank you to all of you. Sanjay, thank you to you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com