Saint Louis Area Oncologist Pleads Guilty to Purchasing and Distributing Fake Cancer Drugs
In an FDA report unsealed February 16th, Saint Louis, MO oncologist, Dr. Abid S. Nisar has pled guilty on charges of distributing and receiving misbranded and adulterated prescription drugs, including the cancer treatment drugs marketed in the United States as Neupogen®, Herceptin® and Rituxan®. Nisar purchased the counterfeit cancer from Ban Dune Marketing Inc (BDMI) of La Jolla, CA. he purchased the drugs in 47 different shipments from February through December 2010. BDMI has also been implicated in the first fake Avastin incident reported in the first week of February of 2012.
Who: FDA Office of Inspections, Compliance, Enforcement, and Criminal Investigations.
When: Date of report; February 16, 2012 February-December 2010.
Where: Saint Louis, Missouri, United States.
How: Investigation conducted by the Office of Criminal Investigation for the United States Food and Drug Administration and the Office of Inspector General for the United States Department of Health and Human Services, with assistance from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Additional details: Dr. Nisar is the first doctor to have been convicted in the recent counterfeit cancer drug cases, but more than 60 doctors have received warning from the FDA about their purchase of these counterfeits.
Related sources:
February 16, 2012: Local Cancer Doctor Pleads Guilty to Receiving Misbranded Cancer Drugs Two Californians also Named in Indictment," FDA. 2/16/2012.
FDA finds more counterfeit Roche oncology drugs in US," in-Pharma Technologist. 4/4/2012.
St. Louis-area doctor bought misbranded and unapproved chemo drugs, feds say.," St. Louis Today. 2/16/2012.