Paguia, Marielle B.

BSP-4D

Pharmacist Robert Courtney admits he

diluted drugs

Growing up the son of an itinerant revivalist minister, Robert Courtney learned what it was like to
scratch for a living. From Kansas to Arkansas to Alabama to Nebraska and to the Texas Panhandle,
Courtney’s father took his family along a trail of rural congregations, none of which could pay a preacher
much. As a young adult, Courtney chose a career path as a pharmacist that portended much more
financial comfort. About a decade after graduating from pharmacy school, he bought a pharmacy near
Research Medical Center in Kansas City. Later, he added a pharmacy near Shawnee Mission Medical
Center. By 2001, the year he turned 49, he lived in a large Northland home with his third wife and
children. They traveled often to Colorado ski resorts and to the Caribbean but rarely socialized with
neighbors. He owned millions of dollars in stock and almost a million dollars in property, plus the
pharmacies. He gave his church hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then his success came crashing down.
Many of his prescriptions, it turned out, gave too little help or none at all to unsuspecting, seriously ill
patients. People with lung cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and scores of other grievous and life-
threatening ailments got only a fraction of the doses their doctors prescribed. One sample of a
chemotherapy drug showed it contained only 24 percent of the prescribed amount. Courtney charged
$1,021 but delivered only $242 worth of the drug. The roughly $780 difference, repeated over and over,
helped make him rich. He began diluting drugs in 1992. As many as 4,200 patients might have been
affected. The scheme unraveled because of a sharp-eyed pharmaceutical representative and a
concerned doctor. In May 2001, a salesman for the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company told a Kansas City
oncologist that Courtney’s pharmacy had bought only one-third the amount of the drug Gemzar that he
purportedly provided to the oncologist. The oncologist sent a sample to be tested. It contained only
one-third of the amount prescribed. The oncologist told her lawyer. Her lawyer told the FBI.
In mid-August 2001, prosecutors charged Courtney with misbranding and adulterating a drug. By late
August, about 80 agents and employees of the FBI and the Food and Drug Administration had joined the
investigation. The daughter of one deceased cancer victim called Courtney “a real-life monster in a
white coat who smiles and pretends to help you.” Eventually, Courtney faced charges of diluting the
drugs of 34 cancer patients. He admitted tampering with prescriptions of eight cancer patients and
pleaded guilty to 12 counts of adulterating chemotherapy medications. He also agreed that he diluted
50 additional doses of chemotherapy drugs prescribed for the eight patients, and that he diluted 102
doses for 26 additional cancer patients. Seventeen of the 34 patients had died. As agents interviewed
Courtney further, the list of horrors grew. He admitted diluting 72 different medications over nearly a
decade. Most were cancer treatment drugs, but others could have been used to treat AIDS, multiple
sclerosis, arthritis and other diseases. Authorities estimated his scheme could have touched 400 doctors,
4,200 patients and as many as 98,000 prescriptions. At his sentencing in December 2002, the judge was
direct. “Your crimes are a shock to the conscience of a nation,” U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith said. “You
alone have changed the way a nation thinks … about pharmacists, the way the nation thinks about
prescription medication, the way a nation thinks about those institutions we trusted blindly.” Courtney’s
insurance company agreed to pay $35 million to victims, and two pharmaceutical makers paid $71
million in settlements. His assets were sold to create a fund for restitution. About 1,000 victims received
more than $10,000 each.
When: 1990s - 2001 | What: Diluted prescriptions and pocketed money saved. | Where: Kansas City
|Outcome: Sentenced to maximum of 30 years in federal prison.

Reference: https://www.kansascity.com/news/special-reports/kc-true-
crime/article705846.html#storylink=cpy

JUSTIFICATION:

According to R.A. 3720 Chapter 7, sec 18 ”A drug or device shall be deemed to be adulterated
if it is a drug or device and any substance has been mixed or packed therewith, or any
substances has been substituted wholly or in part thereof, so as to reduce its safety, efficacy,
quality, strength or purity.”

In the case of Robert Courtney, he admitted that he diluted the drugs of his customers. He
adultered product intentionally to earn money. It was also proven when the products he sell was
tested that it only contains one-third of its amount prescribed. What he did was clearly
adulteration.