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American Morning

Kansas City Pharmacist Waters Down Cancer Drugs for Profit

Aired August 17, 2001 - 09:20   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Medical workers in Kansas City are culling through chemotherapy records, trying to identify patients who may have received diluted medication. This is the latest fallout from the arrest of the Kansas City pharmacist who is accused of watering down potentially life-saving cancer drugs.

CNN's David Mattingly has the latest on the investigation and how it all began.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Calls are pouring in to the FBI from cancer patients and their families in Kansas City, Missouri, worried their pharmacist may have secretly diluted their chemotherapy drugs.

DR. SHERIDAN ANDERSON, COUNSELOR: First off, brings a sense of terrible betrayal. They relive again that sense, oh, my gosh, what if it was the treatment? That it just wasn't effective.

MATTINGLY: Authorities allege pharmacist Robert Courtney diluted possibly life-saving prescriptions. The drugs: Taxol, used to treat ovarian, lung and breast cancer, and Gemzar, prescribed for lung and pancreatic cancer. Families of deceased patients fear they have been victimized.

CHARLENE PORTER, MOTHER DIED OF CANCER: We want to know if she received these diluted treatments, and if there's a possibility we'd still have her.

MATTINGLY: The investigation began when a sales rep for drug manufacturer Eli Lilly and Company discovered Courtney billed a doctor for more Gemzar than the pharmacy ordered.

JEFF LANZA, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: What brought this case to light was pure math -- realizing, talking to a doctor's office that was prescribing this drug that they were actually prescribing more of this drug than could have possibly come from this pharmacy.

MATTINGLY: At the center of investigation, the issue of money. Prosecutors say tests in one case revealed a single prescription of Gemzar, valued at just over $1,000, contained only $240 worth of the drug, a possible profit to the pharmacist of $780. CHRIS WHITLEY, U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE: There have been three rounds of testing, involving multiple samples with each test, since July 27th. All three of those rounds of tests have indicated potency levels substantially lower than what the doctor had prescribed.

MATTINGLY (on camera): How much lower? Some Taxol prescriptions, as low as 28 percent of the prescribed dosage. Some Gemzar prescriptions as low as 17 percent. In one case, an intravenous drug bag contained less than 1 percent.

The bit concern now: just how many cancer patients received the diluted drugs?

PATRICK MCINERNEY, INTERNAL MEDICINE ATTORNEY: We will get to everybody. We will get to -- we will notify every single patient who may have been exposed to these drugs.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Courtney turned himself in as investigators searched pharmacy records. He is charged with misbranding and adulterating a drug, punishable by up to three years in prison and a quarter-million-dollar fine.

David Mattingly, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: This case in Kansas City is causing concern for patients all around the country. Joining us now to talk about that, and about how you can work with your pharmacist, is William M. Ellis. He is executive director of the American Pharmaceutical Association. He joins us from our Washington bureau.

Good morning, sir. Thank you for coming in and talking about this.

WILLIAM M. ELLIS, AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL ASSN.: Good morning.

HARRIS: The first question is, have you ever heard of any such thing happening before?

ELLIS: In the almost 20 years that I've been involved in the profession of pharmacy, this is the first time that I've heard of an incident like this.

HARRIS: Since -- since that did take you and your agency and pretty much everyone by surprise, what now is the APHA inspired to do here? Is there something that you should be doing to make sure this never happens again?

ELLIS: Well, I think it's important that patients work closely with their pharmacists and their physicians. I think there's a couple of things that patients can do. As you work with your pharmacist and you select the pharmacist, make sure you have a good relationship with them, and your physician. And feel that you -- that you can ask them questions. The other thing is, when patients use medications, there's a few things that they can do. They can find out information about the medications. And one of the simple things they can do is ask some questions about when will I start to see the effects of medication? How will I know that it's working? And then what kind of side effects can I expect? And then continue to communicate with their pharmacist and with their physician, to get involved in their own care.

HARRIS: If anyone out there is concerned about the medications that they may have sitting right now in their kitchen cabinets or their drug cabinets in their bathrooms, right now, is there some place they can take them to have them checked?

ELLIS: Well, you could always talk with your pharmacist. But I can tell you that the products that are on the market that are approved are generally safe. We look at this incident in Kansas City as an isolated incident, and I don't believe that patients should be concerned that this would be an occurrence that really happens on any regular basis.

Again, this is an isolated incident and patients should feel confident and comfortable with the medications they have and with the health care providers and pharmacists and physicians that they're working with now.

HARRIS: Yes, and -- no one is really -- I have yet to hear someone dispute that this is an isolated incident. But the fact is that a drug rep, just by happenstance, happened to find this. Is there any that perhaps drug reps or, again, members of the APHA can somehow be more vigilant to find -- I guess, to see any warning signs about things like this?

ELLIS: Well, I think the best solution is to have pharmacists and patients and physicians work together. That makes good sense for any medication. Again, monitoring how those medicines are supposed to be working, asking questions, should I be experiencing side effects, when can I experience relief? There's a system in place.

A system of checks and balances, in this case, was in place that caught that something wasn't right. There are state boards of pharmacies around the country in all the states that routinely monitor pharmacy activities, as well as state boards of medicine. So there are protections in place for the consumer.

HARRIS: William Ellis of the American Pharmaceutical Association, thank you very much.

ELLIS: Thank you.

HARRIS: We appreciate your time this morning.

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