Agents Raid Compounding Pharmacies In 5 States
I talked to a woman, let’s call her Esther, who is elderly and her life depends on these compounded holistic prescriptions her doctor prescribed. They changed her life, got her off off of harmful narcotic prescriptions and she said, after losing her husband, she was happy and “living again.
But not anymore.
The feds have shut her beloved pharmacy down and don’t seem too concerned about the fact she says she could now “die’ without those special compounded prescriptions. Last I heard she was headed downhill.
And fast.
Various reports are surfacing that federal and state enforcement agents have raided compounding pharmacies(which create and dispense custom-made medications)in four states: Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Utah. In the raid, which was part of a healthcare fraud investigation, more than $15 million in assets were seized. 15 million might sound like a lot, but when we are talking about multiple pharmacies in the United States, it’s really not that significant.
Many are contacting us who went to these pharmacies to get life saving compounded “holistic” prescriptions and now they’ve lost access and are worried for their health.
Even I’ve suffered because I can no longer get my compounded B12 shots and the few compounding pharmacies still left said they’ve made it so expensive for them to carry them (where they have to test each batch) that they actually ended up paying (not profiting) off my b12 supplements. I’d also gotten them for my 2 cats when they were aged 19 and 20. Suddenly we couldn’t get access anymore. No surprise.
While it was the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics who initiated the investigation, the FBI served the search warrants. Nine pharmacies in Mississippi, and three pharmacies in each of the other states (including here in Florida) were raided as part of the investigation. “Agents were seen taking boxes out of OpusRx Pharmacy, Rx Remedies, Medworx Compounding and Aspire Health Compounding, according to WAPT News”, reports the Fierce Health Player.
Don Alway, an FBI special agent from Jackson, told The Clarion-Ledger that the search warrants were issued, “based on probable cause on information we’ve received from the public.” In addition, Fierce Health Player reports that a spokesperson for the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics told the newspaper that, “agents interviewed hundreds of people and seized $15 million in the form of 24 vehicles, five planes, two boats and money from 80 bank accounts.”
When we’re talking money from close to 100 different people- we’d imagine that some would have had cars, a boat and even yes, 5 planes. I’m sure they’ve got nothing on the big pharma execs.
Over the last couple of years, compounding pharmacies have come under increased scrutiny thanks to both high price tags and the risks involved in the practice(due to patient non-compliance- or issues with regular medications). Some estimates say that compounding has been a central part of the practice for over 4000 years, so it’s obviously here to stay. For more history on compounding, including a brief history, click here.
Let’s hope regulators can find a balance between getting customers the medications they need and making sure the consumer is protected. It’s a shame that now people write me (including one elderly woman) who can no longer get her compounded medications that she say is keeping her alive. When she called authorities and told them her plight, she said they did no more than chuckle and offered her no advice whatsoever on how to stay alive and not die as a result of their raids.
Thoughts prayers and healing thoughts go to the many emails pouring in about people who are now left with medicine and a federal government that seems quite pleased about this.
I guess they’ll be going back to the dangerous big pharma scripts now.
Source: Fierce Health Player and Harvard
