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An indictment was unsealed today charging a doctor and three other individuals with conspiracy to illegally distribute prescription drugs...Charged in the indictment are: Dr. Michael Weiss, D.O., Edgarten Howard, Carlos Johnson, and Ricky Easley...The indictment alleges that...Weiss conspired with the other defendants to write a large number of prescriptions for highly addictive controlled substances for supposed patients, who did not have a legitimate medical need for the drugs. Weiss primarily prescribed Roxicodone and its generic equivalent, oxycodone, and promethazine cough syrup. He saw the purported patients in Howard’s home, where Howard, Johnson, and Easley paid Weiss cash for his services. Howard, Johnson, and Easley then obtained the drugs that Weiss authorized through the prescriptions, and sold them on the street...Weiss caused Medicare to pay more than $250,000, and Blue Cross almost $40,000, for the illegitimate prescriptions...also...Weiss submitted about 950 claims to Medicare and Blue Cross for providing services to the supposed patients...received about $65,000 through the fraudulent bills.

A total of 202 people have been detained in connection with a scandal over an illegal black market vaccine ring, the Chinese government said...as it vowed to improve supervision of the market...The case, involving millions of illegal trades of vaccines through a black market drugs ring, has ignited public ire and underscored regulatory weaknesses in the world's second largest pharmaceuticals market...The State Council...said in a report 202 people had now been detained, with 357 health and regulatory officials receiving administrative punishments...The supervision and regulatory system would be tightened, the State Council said, with better record keeping for the production, storing and transport of vaccines and tougher punishments for lawbreakers...The scandal has stirred angry debate, casting a shadow over government ambitions to bolster the domestic drug industry and underlining the challenge it faces to regulate a widespread and fragmented medicine supply chain.

Fentanyl...has been linked to multiple overdoses and deaths throughout the Sacramento region since last week.  The overdoses are occurring at an alarming rate and are the basis for this public safety alert.  Fentanyl is an odorless substance considered to be 25 to 50 times more potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine...according to the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services there have been 36 opioid-related overdoses and nine deaths that have been reported...Public Health and Law Enforcement officials believe that the pills containing Fentanyl were likely sold on the street under the guise of being legitimate hydrocodone.  Additionally, the pills are marked to mimic the authentic hydrocodone product. However, the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services reports that test results show that some of the tested pills did not contain hydrocodone, but rather fentanyl.

Dr. Thomas S. Franko discusses drug diversion and prescription drug abuse (podcast 30:10m).

The Australian consumer watchdog says manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser profited substantially and should be fined accordingly...Nurofen’s manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser should be fined $6m for misleading consumers over a range of “targeted” pain products that cost twice as much as its standard painkillers despite all products in the range having the same active ingredient and effect, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has found...the federal court found the British company...had engaged in “misleading conduct” by representing that its Nurofen Specific Pain products targeted a type or area of pain despite being identical, and ordered they be removed from supermarket shelves...There needs to be some serious taking away of profit...Targeted painkillers zero in on one vital organ – the wallet...Nurofen did not set out to mislead consumers. Nurofen has cooperated with the ACCC in relation to these proceedings and will fully comply with the court order….

Dr. John Alan Littleford, and three others were indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver last week on charges related to the illegal distribution of prescription medication and money laundering...Littleford...Dianna L Smithling...Stanley G. Callas and Scott Alan Eskanos were arrested this morning...defendants are alleged to have dispensed and distributed controlled substances to individuals in quantities and dosages that would enable the individuals to abuse, misuse, and develop or maintain dependencies or addictions to controlled substances. Littleford routinely wrote new prescriptions for opioids when the individuals for whom he was writing the prescriptions should have still had opioids left from a prior prescription...Callas and Eskanos knowingly filled these "early refill" prescriptions written by Littleford. The indictment specifically alleges unlawful distribution of controlled substances to seven individuals who presented as patients at the Pain & Injury Clinic and filled their prescriptions at Crown Point Pharmacy, Sky Ridge Pharmacy...The indictment alleges that Littleford’s unlawful distribution of Oxycodone to two of the individuals resulted in their respective deaths. Finally, the indictment alleges the defendants committed money laundering with the intent to promote the carrying on of their unlawful distribution of controlled substances.

After a decade in which drug makers regularly paid huge fines for various fraudulent practices, there was a noticeable drop over the past two years, according to a new analysis by Public Citizen...Pharmaceutical companies paid approximately $2.8 billion to settle federal and state civil and criminal charges in 2014 and 2015, compared with $9.9 billion during 2012 and 2013. The most recent payments also amounted to the lowest two-year total since 2004 and 2005...Among the worst offenders in recent years were Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Novartis, and GlaxoSmithKline, although the report noted that nearly every large drug maker has paid fines to resolve some kind of infraction over the past two decades...A spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America...We are disappointed at the report’s misleading conclusions...Among its many methodological flaws, the report aggregates all settlements involving the pharmaceutical industry, with little regard as to whether the companies actually broke the law. Civil settlements rarely resolve the question of guilt. Yet the report glosses over its own finding that 88 percent of the settlements reported were civil, not criminal...

GlaxoSmithKline is conducting an internal investigation into allegations that its subsidiary in Yemen hired government employees to influence purchasing decisions and boost sales of its medicines...more than a half-dozen Glaxo employees allegedly have also held various paid positions...at the government health ministry. The allegations are similar to those made two years ago concerning its operations in Iraq..."GSK has received allegations about staff conduct in Yemen and is investigating them thoroughly,"...The drug maker is currently being investigated by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission for potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The UK’s Serious Fraud Office is also investigating Glaxo for possible criminal violations of the Bribery Act...

Warning comes on the heels of recent ransomware onslaughts on hospitals, businesses and private entities...United States Department of Homeland Security and the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Center issued a joint cyber alert...in response to the recent surge in ransomware attacks...The alert offered a breakdown and description of the ransomware variants for which healthcare and other organizations should be on the lookout...both government agencies strongly recommended that organizations and individuals not pay the ransoms demanded by cyber attackers...Paying the ransom doesn't guarantee the encrypted files will be released; it only guarantees the malicious actors receive the victim’s money and in some cases, their banking information...In addition, decrypting files doesn't mean the malware infection itself has been removed...Private security experts have predicted these types of cyber attacks will intensify in the near future, as hackers increase in experience and due to the outdated security measures in place at many organizations...

In a typical response to publicity that its pharma supply chain has been breached, China has rounded up dozens of suspects as it investigates an operation said to have illegally sold vaccines that may not have been safely stored or shipped...Citing China's official news agency, Xinhua, Reuters reports that authorities arrested 37 people in the crackdown. The report said the arrests were made after Premier Li Keqiang called for a complete investigation but that it wasn't clear that everyone picked up was tied to the operation that reportedly sold $88 million worth of vaccines over 5 years...China has been beefing up its drug and food safety apparatus for several years after being embarrassed internationally over a number of cases where tainted products showed up in China or were shipped to other countries. It is pretty common for authorities to respond with a police sweep that nabs lots of people...