Tennessee Medical Office Manager Pleads Guilty to Importing non-FDA Approved Cancer Medication from Canada Drugs Subsidiary

Karen Chamberlain faces up to a year in prison on charges she purchased cancer drugs from clandestine medical importer, Quality Specialty Products (QSP).

A 62-year old medical office manager in Tennessee is facing up to a year in prison after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges that she imported non-FDA approved cancer medications for the clinic where she was employed, The Chattanoogan reports.

According to the information sheet from her trial, Chamberlain purchased a quantity of a misbranded version of the cancer treatment Taxotere on behalf of her employer, Chattanooga Gyn-Oncology. The Chattanoogan identified the seller as Canada Drugs subsidiary, QSP.

Prosecutor Perry Piper told the Chattanoogan, “The drugs being procured by Chattanooga Gyn-Oncology through the defendant were obtained from Quality Special Products (QSP) in Winnipeg, Canada. Quality Specialty Products was a business in Winnipeg, Canada, offering for sale to physicians and other health care providers in the United States drugs which had been obtained from foreign sources and which had not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for distribution or use in the United States.”

According to the Chattanoogan, Chamberlain admitted in court that she knew QSP was located in Canada and that the drugs were not FDA approved. Chamberlain claimed she did not know she was doing anything wrong.

By S. Imber