Specialty Compounding Distributing Adulterated Drugs!

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas entered a consent decree of permanent injunction against Specialty Compounding LLC, Raymond L. Solano III and William L. Swail to prevent the distribution of adulterated and misbranded drugs, the Department of Justice announced today. 

The department filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas on Feb. 23, at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  According to the complaint, Specialty Compounding manufactured both sterile and non-sterile drugs at a facility in Cedar Park, Texas, and distributed the company’s drugs to hospitals, surgery centers and health clinics in Texas and throughout the United States.  As noted in the complaint, Solano is Specialty Compounding’s pharmacist-in-charge and co-owner, and Swail is Specialty Compounding’s Managing Partner and co-owner. 

The complaint alleges that Specialty Compounding manufactured a sterile injectable drug product that tested positive for bacterial growth.  In addition, according to the complaint, in August 2013, FDA received reports from two Texas hospitals that 17 patients had developed bacterial infections caused by Rhodococcus equi after receiving infusions of calcium gluconate manufactured by Specialty Compounding.  Specialty Compounding ceased sterile drug manufacturing operations in August 2013, and recalled all lots of its unexpired sterile drug products distributed since Feb. 1, 2013.
“Specialty Compounding’s manufacturing practices posed a serious risk to the public health,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. 

“The American public needs to have the confidence that pharmaceutical drugs on the market are safe and effective.”
In conjunction with the filing of the complaint, the defendants agreed to settle the litigation and be bound by a permanent injunction.  As part of the settlement, the company and its owners have committed to implementing corrective actions before resuming production of sterile drugs.  Specifically, the injunction prohibits Specialty Compounding and its owners from manufacturing, holding or distributing sterile drugs until they comply with the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and its regulations.  The permanent injunction also provides the defendants cannot resume distribution of sterile drug products until they receive written approval from the FDA that they are in compliance with the remedial provisions of the permanent injunction.  

As described in the complaint, the FDA inspected Specialty Compounding’s Cedar Park facility in August and September 2013, and found insanitary conditions and numerous violations of the current good manufacturing practice requirements for drug products.  Among other observations, the FDA found that the company was distributing some of their drugs without receiving a valid prescription for an identified individual patient and was introducing into interstate commerce unapproved new drugs and misbranded drugs.  In addition, as alleged in the complaint, analyses of samples of a drug product collected by the FDA found bacterial contamination in one of the company’s drugs.  The company initiated a recall of all injectable drugs on Aug. 9, 2013. 

The government is represented by Trial Attorney Jessica Gunder of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch, with the assistance of Associate Chief Counsel Melissa Mendoza of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of General Counsel’s Food and Drug Division.