Compounding Doctor and Pharmacist Indicted

Four people, including a Houston area pharmacist and a physician have been indicted because of practices they engaged in while marketing compound drugs. According to the Houston Chronicle, the accused pharmacist “almost exclusively sold the compounded creams containing ketamine using pre-signed prescriptions to fill orders for customers who had certain insurance plans. Ketamine is a prescription painkiller usually used by health practitioners as an anesthetic before medical or dental procedures.”

Dr. Michael V. Kelly II, a 71-year-old doctor from Montgomery County, Houston pharmacist Joyce Ann Gilmore-James, 32-year-old pharmacy technician Priscilla Orosco and pharmacy owner Tamara G. Mitchell are named in a four-count federal indictment filed last week.

The government accuses them of selling ketamine, an anesthetic drug, without valid prescriptions or “a legitimate medical purpose” through two independent Houston pharmacies owned by Mitchell: Diamond Pharmacy on Hillcroft and Save-Rite on Barker Cypress. Federal law requires controlled substances such as ketamine to be sold only when medically required.

The counts include conspiracy to commit wire fraud, unlawfully distributing a controlled substance and aiding in the unlawful distribution of ketamine.

The indictment accuses the defendants of using “sales representatives to recruit customers.” The pharmacies allegedly billed multiple insurance companies up to $17 million for the compounded creams in a little more than one year. Each defendant faces a minimum of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy charges alone.