Canada Drugs – an online pharmacy based in Winnipeg that sells and ships medications internationally – was fined $5 million, sentenced to five years of probation, and forfeited $29 million for importing counterfeit cancer drugs and other unapproved pharmaceuticals into the U.S. The company and two overseas subsidiaries pleaded guilty to introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce, and founder Kris Thorkelson pleaded guilty to knowing about and concealing a felony crime.
Partnership for Safe Medicines, a consumer advocacy group, urged the judge to impose harsher penalties – prison time for Mr. Thorkelson and long-term revocation of the company's pharmacy licenses – to deter future crimes.
Federal prosecutors wrote in court documents that the recommended sentence is appropriate. The case is being handled in Montana, where Canada Drugs acquired another company to use its drug inventory and customer list.
Source: AP News, April 13, 2018.