A distributor of veterinary drugs that did business in Southwest Virginia was placed on probation for a year and fined $1 million Wednesday for misbranding prescription medications.
Covetrus North America also agreed in February to pay more than $23 million in criminal forfeitures and penalties when it pleaded guilty to charges filed in U.S. District Court in Abingdon.
Based in Ohio, Covetrus shipped drugs to a variety of locations, including farms, where they were administered by veterinarians. It is illegal in Virginia and some other states to deliver drugs directly from non-pharmacy locations to end-users, which constitutes misbranding.
鈥淐ovetrus NA now understands that such shipments are unlawful in certain states, even when the veterinarian has established the requisite veterinarian-patient relationship,鈥 attorneys for the company wrote in court papers.
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Since the charges were filed, Covetrus has created a so-called Large Animal Pharmacy and redesigned its operations to comply with the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, its attorneys wrote.
澳门六合彩平台 uncontrolled distribution of veterinary drugs poses a risk not only to the medicated animals, the FDA says, but also to the public by increasing the chances that humans will become resistant to antibiotics they consume in food from slaughtered livestock.
Because it deals primarily with companion animals, Covetrus said its actions caused 鈥渁 comparably small risk to human health.鈥
In addition to placing the company on probation, U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamela Meade Sargent ordered that the $1 million fine be paid to the Virginia Department of Health Professions.
In recent years, there have been two other misbranding cases brought in Western Virginia against veterinary drug distributors. Both companies were fined and placed on probation for a year, Covetrus said in asking for a similar disposition.