A man from Miami has admitted to distributing between $16.7 million to $25 million of misbranded and tainted HIV drugs to pharmacies across the country.
The unsuspecting pharmacies, in turn, dispensed these drugs to unaware patients.
Details of the crime
43-year-old Armando Herrera, after entering a guilty plea in the U.S. District Court in Miami, now stands on the precipice of facing up to five years in prison.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on December 21.
The official charge, as per the court records, is conspiring to introduce adulterated and misbranded medications into the U.S. market.
To define, a medication gets the label of being ‘adulterated’ when it has been partially or fully replaced by another substance.
The intricate web of deception
Reports are that working in tandem with accomplices, Herrera established entities in Texas, California, and Washington.
They procured vast amounts of tainted and mislabeled HIV drugs through legal channels.
Following this, the group manipulated the pill packaging and then sold them to wholesalers at notably discounted prices.
While these wholesalers actively participated in the illicit venture, the pharmacies remained oblivious to the drug alterations or misbranding.
Key medications caught in this web included Truvada, Biktarvy, and a few others yet to be named.
Notably, Truvada plays a dual role – it is used as a preventive measure against HIV for those at risk and also in tandem with other drugs for treatment.
On the other hand, Biktarvy is specifically prescribed for HIV treatment. Both these medications are products of Gilead Sciences.
Monetary gains and legal implications
According to court filings, from this illicit venture, Herrera and his group received payments ranging between $16.7 million and $25 million from two wholesalers.
The filings did not say how Herrera and his co-conspirators acquired the drugs.
It is often observed that such medications are deviated from the legal market by buying them from patients who have them prescribed.
