Two Years for Selling Bad Cancer Drugs

ST. LOUIS (CN) - A California man who supplied adulterated cancer drugs to a St. Louis doctor was sentenced to two years in federal prison.

James Newcomb, of La Jolla, admitted supplying the drugs to Dr. Abid Nisar, an oncologist, according to a February 2010 plea agreement.

Newcomb also admitted distributing drugs to other doctors in the United States, with help from people in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Prosecutors said Newcomb pushed the drugs by offering 14 percent to 60 percent off wholesale, but his drugs were not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Newcomb admitted he began distributing "cold chain" cancer chemotherapy drugs during the fall of 2010. Such drugs require constant storage at certain temperatures. Newcomb admitted he sent Nisar a compromised shipment of cold chain drugs marketed in the United States as Neupogen and Rituxan, prosecutors said.

The prescription drugs were considered adulterated because of the incorrect methods of their storage and shipment.

"This sentence aptly reflects the serious nature of this crime," the FDA agent in charge of criminal investigations for the Kansas City Field Office said in a statement. "

Newcomb also agreed to forfeit $1.4 million and a Land Rover.

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