Helbig v Interstate Pharmacy Corporation
Hawaiians Don't Want to Take IPC Pharmacy's Reused Pills
The class has been certified in a class action filed against IPC Pharmacy and five related companies on behalf of Hawaiians who allege that the company accepted pills returned by nursing homes and recycled them either by returning them to bulk container bottles or by relabeling them, in violation of state consumer protection laws. The action seeks a return of the purchase price of the drugs.
The action alleges that Hawaiians who had prescriptions in certain IPC drug product lines were sold drugs that could have been a hodgepodge of drugs previously sold to multiple consumers. Many of the people affected are nursing home residents.
The companies named in the action are Interstate Pharmacy Corporation, Pharmacy Corporation of America, IPC Pharmacy, Pharmerica, Inc., Bergen Brunswick Corporation, and Amerisource Bergen. Amerisource Bergen's predecessor, Bergen Brunswig, was fined $4 million in 2001 by the Hawaii Medicaid Investigations Division to settle allegations that included billing the state twice for the same pills. IPC was fined $30,000 by the state Board of Pharmacy.
