Face a year in prison, $2.9 million in fines.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Greenville, Tennessee-based oncologist Anindya Kumar Sen was convicted of buying misappropriated cancer drugs along with his wife, Patricia Posey Sen.
Dr. and Mrs. Sen – 65 and 66 years old, respectively – were convicted on 29 misdemeanor counts on December 16th, and face one year in prison on each of those counts and $2.9 million worth of fines.
The Sens were found guilty of using their medical practice, East Tennessee Hematology Oncology, to purchase roughly $3 million worth of misbranded chemotherapy and other cancer-related medications. The purchases were made over a three year-long period, between April 2009 and March 2012.
The drugs were purchased through a Canadian company, which itself got them from a distributor based in the UK. The drugs they bought were apparently also distributed throughout Europe, Turkey, and even India. The drugs were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), therefore making their sale illegal.
The reason for doing is this is because Medicare reimburses doctors as much as 106% of the average cost of a medication that a doctor prescribes. The federal medical benefits program requires, however, that the medication obviously be approved by the FDA. By purchasing cheaper drugs, the Sens were turning a profit on the money they were getting from Medicare.
After their arrest, the Sens were offered a deal to plead guilty to just one misdemeanor count in exchange for having all the rest of them dropped, but the offer was rejected, presumably because they believed they could beat all the charges.
They are both scheduled to be sentenced on April 30, at 1:30 PM, at the US District Court in Greenville.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com