Chapter closes on trial of Georgia distributor of knockoff branded products
Company imported knockoffs from Belize and sold them over the Internet
As reported by MSNBC, Jared Wheat, president of Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals (Norcross, GA) accepted a plea bargain in federal court for illegally selling the drugs, and will serve a 50-month sentence. The company and other individual defendants will forfeit $3 million in illicit proceeds. However, charges from other alleged actions, including racketeering, and selling diet supplements spiked with ephendrine, were dropped.
Stemming from investigations that concluded with arrests in 2006, Hi-Tech was accused of running a manufacturing facility in Belize from which it imported “generic” versions of Xanax, Valium, Ambien, Zoloft and other branded products. In interviews with MSNBC, West had contended that the products were legal because patent protections for them did not exist in Belize.
The Biosimilars Landscape Through the Eyes of an Economist
February 21st 2025James D. Chambers, PhD, MPharm, MSc, professor of medicine at the Tufts Medical Center Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, dives into why biosimilars contribute to a reduction in cost and increase in patient access, while highlighting challenges to adoption.
