An oncologist in Lodi, Calif., and his wife, who served as the administrator of his office, paid the federal government $300,000 to settle allegations that they billed Medicare for chemotherapy drugs purchased from an unlicensed foreign pharmaceutical distributor, according to the Department of Justice.
Between October 2010 and May 2011, John F. Kiraly, MD, and his wife, Rena Kiraly, allegedly violated the False Claims Act by giving patients drugs that they purchased from Warwick Healthcare Solutions, a former United Kingdom-based drug distributor.
One of the medications the Kiralys purchased from Warwick was Altuzan, which is not approved by the FDA. The FDA tested a batch of the Altuzan that the Kiralys purchased from Warwick and discovered it was counterfeit, lacking the active ingredient bevacizumab, according to the DOJ.
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