Stockton area Oncologist Pays $736,000 to Resolve False Claims Allegations Pertaining to Fake Cancer Drug Purchases
Dr. Neelesh Bangalore has agreed to pay $736,000 to resolve allegations that he improperly billed Medicare for oncology drugs he purchased from a foreign supplier. Dr. Bangalore is alleged to have purchased several different chemotherapy drugs from unlicensed foreign pharmaceutical distributor, Richards Pharma. Richards Pharma, or Warwick Healthcare Solutions was an unsanctioned pharmaceutical distributor that was a source of counterfeit Altuzan.
Who: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the Defense Health Agency.
When: July 24, 2015, May 2009 – May 2011.
Where: Stockton, California.
How: Investigation by FDA-OCI.
Additional details: In April 2012, the FDA sent Dr. Bangalore a warning letter concerning his medication purchases from an unlicensed pharmaceutical distributor. When FDA conducted it’s investigation of his offices, FDA tested a batch of Altuzan that Bangalore had purchased from Warwick and determined that it was counterfeit and lacked the active ingredient bevacizumab.
Related sources:
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California oncologist pays $736k to settle false claims allegations,” Becker Hospital Review July 28, 2015
“Stockton Oncologist Pays $736,000 to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations,” DOJ, July 24, 2015
“Re: Purchasing Medications from Foreign or Unlicensed Suppliers Could Result in Serious Harm to Patients; Another Counterfeit Found in U.S.,” FDA Warning Letter, April 5, 2012