Two men face federal charges in Lipitor conspiracy

Wednesday, February 9th 2005, 8:43 am

By: News On 6

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ Two men have been charged in a multimillion dollar scheme to sell counterfeit and illegally imported Lipitor. Three others have already been convicted in the plot.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Gregory Broccoli, 38, of New York City, and Richard Goodman, 40, of Miami, on charges of conspiring to sell fake and illegally imported versions of the cholesterol-reducing drug.

The defendants already convicted are from Miami, Chicago and Anaheim, Calif.

Albers Medical Distributors Inc., of Kansas City, paid more than $12.8 million for the illegal pharmaceuticals, U.S. Attorney Todd Graves said. Albers has not been charged with wrongdoing.

The conspirators allegedly bought genuine Lipitor intended for distribution in South America and illegally imported it into the United States. They also shipped equipment and chemicals to Costa Rica and Honduras to manufacture counterfeit Lipitor.

More than 4 million tablets of the fake drug were smuggled into the United States. While not considered dangerous, the fake pills had no health benefits.