Class-action suit
to proceed against
drug distributorThe firm allegedly recycled pills
returned by nursing homes
An Oahu Circuit judge ruled yesterday to permit a class-action lawsuit to proceed against a national drug distribution firm and its local office, which are accused of selling recycled drugs in Hawaii.
The lawsuit alleges that during the 1990s IPC Pharmacy, owned by Pennsylvania-based Amerisource Bergen, accepted pills returned by nursing homes and recycled them either by returning them to bulk container bottles or by relabeling them.
"For years Hawaii prescription drug consumers in certain IPC drug product lines were sold drugs that could have been a hodgepodge of drugs previously sold to multiple consumers," the suit claims.
Attorneys for the class estimate 4,000 people in Hawaii have been affected. The suit seeks to have the purchase price of the drugs returned to consumers.
Thomas Grande, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, said without the class-action status granted by Judge Eden Hifo, "it would be unlikely they could proceed on their own against these large drug suppliers."
Many of the affected consumers live in nursing and care homes, the complaint said.
The attorneys said Amerisource Bergen's predecessor, Bergen Brunswig, was fined $4 million in 2001 by the state Medicaid Investigations Division to settle allegations that included billing the state twice for the same pills. IPC was fined $30,000 by the Board of Pharmacy.
