Cummings, Rockefeller, and Harkin Investigate "Fake Pharmacies" Buying and Selling Shortage Drugs in the Gray Market

Press Release

Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Senator John D. Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Senator Tom Harkin, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, sent letters requesting documents from licensed pharmacies that are buying up drugs that are desperately needed to treat cancer and other illnesses and are in critically short supply, and are selling these drugs back into the gray market instead of providing them to patients who need them.

Documents obtained during the course of this ongoing investigation indicate that rather than dispensing short-supply drugs to patients pursuant to their licenses, these pharmacies instead transferred these drugs to wholesaler companies owned by the same individuals. These wholesaler companies then sold the drugs back into the gray market, sometimes in violation of state law and at exorbitant markups.

"It appears that some of these individuals essentially established "fake pharmacies' to obtain drugs that are in critically short supply and are desperately needed to treat patients with cancer and others diseases," said Cummings. "What remains unclear is exactly how much they profited from this activity."

"These pharmacies seem to be taking advantage of their position and the larger shortage of some drugs to make a profit. If true it's unacceptable. That's why we are following this paper trail and intend to see whether people with life-threatening illnesses had trouble finding the medications they need because of these companies business practices," said Rockefeller.

"Americans depend on their local pharmacies for access to life-saving medication," said Harkin. "It is deeply troubling that these companies would set up sham pharmacies to illegally obtain and inflate the prices of cancer-fighting drugs."

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