FBI suspects second person diluted drugs

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Agents are investigating whether someone besides Robert R. Courtney diluted a fertility medication sold at another of the jailed druggist's pharmacies, the FBI said Wednesday.

Courtney is charged with diluting the cancer drugs Gemzar and Taxol at his Research Medical Tower Pharmacy in Kansas City. Tests released Tuesday showed two samples of progesterone from his store in Merriam, Kan., had been watered down.

"We're looking at the possibility that a second person may have done these dilutions" because Courtney had little involvement with the Kansas store, FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza told The Associated Press.

No one has been charged or taken into custody after the latest tests, Lanza said. But the Kansas pharmacy has one main pharmacist and a few who sometimes fill in.

"There are a limited number of people who are responsible for mixing drugs at the pharmacy," he said.

Courtney has been held without bond since his arrest on Aug. 15. He was later indicted on 20 federal counts of tampering, adulterating and misbranding the chemotherapy drugs that a Kansas City physician prescribed for her patients. He has pleaded innocent and is scheduled for trial in March.

His attorney, Jean Paul Bradshaw II, said Wednesday the FBI hadn't told him anything about the latest test results or an expansion in the investigation.

"I don't know of anyone at the pharmacy that would have done anything improper," Bradshaw said.

The government claims Courtney confessed that he diluted the chemotherapy drugs so he could pocket the difference in price. Courtney owed more than $600,000 in taxes and $330,000 on a pledge to his church, according to court papers filed Monday.

But progesterone is not a particularly expensive drug, Lanza said, suggesting a different motive for the latest alleged dilutions.

Lanza said the federal Food and Drug Administration, which examined the progesterone samples, is also testing the potency of other drugs from the Merriam store. Lanza would not say which drugs were being tested or when results were expected.

Gemzar and Taxol had been diluted to less than 39 percent of their intended potency, the FBI has said. A comparable figure for the progesterone sample was not available, Lanza said.

Investigators have also turned up suspicious or low-potency samples of Paraplatin, Platinol, Procrit, Neupogen, Roferon and Zofran, according to court records released last week.

Prosecutors also alleged in court papers last week that Courtney phoned family members from jail and asked them to destroy evidence.

Yet, they have said Courtney is unlikely to face additional charges until after a jury has heard the case on the initial 20 counts.

Previously, investigators had focused their attention on Courtney's Missouri pharmacy and discouraged patients from submitting medications obtained elsewhere.

The manager for the Kansas store, Greg Geier, said in August that Courtney "has not filled a prescription here for at least five years and probably beyond that."

But just after Courtney's alleged dilutions surfaced in August, a woman who had obtained progesterone from the Kansas pharmacy submitted the two intravenous samples to the FBI for testing, Lanza said.

Lanza said the tests were completed within the last two or three weeks but were not released until Tuesday evening because of "investigative concerns." He would not elaborate.

Bradshaw called it "odd" that the government would release the information just about two weeks before a change of venue hearing, scheduled for the week of Dec. 17.

"They seem to want to release information in drips and drabs and it seems an odd time to be doing it," Bradshaw said. "It'd only be speculation for me to say why, but each one of which makes it more difficult for Mr. Courtney to get a fair trial in Kansas City."

The Merriam store, called Courtney's Pharmacy, specialized in medications to treat infertility. Progesterone is a steroid hormone secreted by the female reproductive system to prepare a woman's body to accept a fertilized egg.

Using diluted progesterone could prevent the intended effect from occurring but otherwise is not particularly harmful, said Mary Euler, assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.