Canadian online pharmacy pioneer arrested in U.S. - CBC
Andrew Strempler, a Manitoba man who was one of the first entrepreneurs in the cross-border online pharmacy industry, has been arrested in Florida and is facing charges related to the sale of foreign and counterfeit medicines, CBC News has confirmed.
The founder of Mediplan Pharmacy — also known as RxNorth.com — appeared in a federal court in Miami on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Strempler, 38, is expected to be arraigned next week on charges tied to an online pharmacy business, the paper said.
The current charges relate to a 2005 seizure of drugs being shipped by Mediplan. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration claimed many of the drugs promoted as Canadian actually came from other countries. An FDA investigation was launched in 2006 after the agency advised consumers against purchasing several prescription drugs from Mediplan.
At that time, Strempler called the FDA warning a tactic designed to prevent uninsured Americans from getting drugs from outside the U.S.
He also said his company regularly tested the drugs and declared them safe and reliable.
Strempler later sold the company to CanadaDrugs.com, another Winnipeg-based online pharmacy group that is currently being investigated by the FDA in connection with two more cases of counterfeit cancer drugs found in the U.S. earlier this year.
"It's somewhat unfortunate because when some of these infractions occurred, the business, in my opinion, was 100 per cent legitimate, at least that was the intention," David MacKay, the former executive director of the Canadian Internet Pharmacy Association, said after he heard of the charges.
MacKay, who has known Strempler for years, said he believed Strempler had "every intention of conducting an ethical and professional business" aimed at helping U.S. patients keep drug costs down.
MacKay said that because trade was "spreading worldwide and the product was being sourced from outside of Canada, the chances increased for any pharmacy to be penetrated by counterfeit product."
FDA looking at other online pharmacies
The current charges come two years after Strempler agreed to have his name removed from the Manitoba Pharmaceutical Association registry. That move came after disciplinary hearings in which the association alleged Strempler's company sold drugs from overseas locations that weren't approved by Health Canada.
Strempler started operating in a free-trade zone in Curacao, a tiny nation in the Caribbean, shortly after. It's not known why he was in Miami.
"Clearly the FDA was looking for him and had interest in arresting him for some time and unfortunately he stepped foot in the country," MacKay said.
An FDA spokesperson would not comment specifically on the arrests, but urged customers to be careful when making online drug purchases.
"Many of these websites are operating outside of the United States. However, the internet's broad reach allows these websites to reach U.S. consumers," Sarah Clark-Lynn said in an email statement.
"[The] FDA cannot assure the safety and efficacy of products that are purchased outside of legitimate channels. This also means that we or the consumer cannot be sure that the products received are what the seller is claiming them to be, even if the seller says the products are 'approved drugs.'"
The FDA is also looking at other cases linked to online pharmacies.
CBC News has obtained a U.S. grand jury subpoena sent to American oncologists earlier this year in connection with an investigation into counterfeit versions of the cancer drugs, Avastin and Altuzan. RxNorth is named in the subpoena, as well as several other Canadian entrepreneurs and companies.
UPDATE 1-Russia's MMK net profit down y-o-y, beats fcast - Reuters
* MMK net profit $14 mln, down from $134 a year ago
* Profits affected by underperforming Turkish segment, forex losses
* Co total debt down y-o-y (Updates with context, quotes)
MOSCOW, June 15 (Reuters) - Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK), Russia's third largest steelmaker, on Friday posted a sharp drop in profits as its results were affected by its Turkish steel unit and foreign exchange losses.
The first quarter net profit of $14 million beat analyst expectations. Analysts had forecast the company to report a net loss of $1 million, down from a year-earlier net profit of $134 million on the back of lower steel prices and foreign exchange losses.
The company, controlled by billionaire Viktor Rashnikov, said its Turkish asset MMK Metallurji, which posted an $18 million EBITDA loss in the first quarter, dented overall profits along with currency exchange losses.
"The loss at MMK Metalurji continued to have a negative effect on net profit for the period," the company said in a statement. "One-off factors affecting net profit for the period included a foreign exchange loss of $89 million".
The company said its revenue rose to $2.43 billion from $2.22 billion a year ago.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped to $293 million from $403 million a year ago.
MMK's total debt stood at $4.25 billion in the first quarter, down by $170 million from the end of last year.
The company provided a mixed outlook for the second quarter saying steel prices would likely continue to fall.
"Average prices since the beginning of 2012 rose by 6-7 percent. At present prices are experiencing a correction, which is expected to continue into the middle of Q3 2012," MMK said.
At the same time MMK expects its 2012 finished steel products output to grow year-on-year driven by increased domestic demand and the launch of new products.
"An expected increase in demand for steel in Russia in 2012, the introduction of new products at Magnitogorsk and MMK Metalurji reaching full production capacity will allow MMK Group to increase output of finished steel products compared with 2011," the company said.
MMK shares were up 1.53 pct at 0711 GMT outperforming the broader MICEX index which was up 0.52 pct. (Reporting By Alexei Anishchuk, editing by Maria Kiselyova and Megan Davies)
0 Responses to "Canadian online pharmacy pioneer arrested in U.S. - CBC"
Post a Comment