Central Kentucky pharmacy admits $1.7 in illegal shipments of steroid-like drugs.
A Central Kentucky pharmacy and the owner have pleaded guilty to federal drug charges.
Tailor Made Compounding LLC pleaded guilty Thursday to one charge of distributing unapproved drugs, while Jeremy Delk pleaded guilty to a charge of taking part in wholesale distribution of a prescription drug without registering the pharmacy as a wholesaler, according to U.S. Attorney Robert M. Duncan Jr.
The Nicholasville business admitted that from October 2018 through April 1, 2020, it illegally distributed substances called selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) and other drugs that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had not approved for distribution in the country, Duncan said in a release.
SARMs are synthetic chemicals that are designed to mimic the effects of testosterone and other anabolic steroids. Products with the chemicals are marketed to body builders, the release said.
Other unapproved new drugs the pharmacy illegally distributed included BPC 157, Cerebrolysin, CJC 1295, DSIP, Epitalon, GW 501516, Ipamorelin, LGD-4033, LL-37, Melanotan II, MK 677, PEG-MGF, Selank, and Semax, Duncan said.
The business agreed to forfeit $1.7 million, based on its 2019 sales of the products.
Delk, 40, admitted that between October 2018 and May 14, 2020, he sent a total of 112 vials of a drug called Methylcobalamin, a prescription form of vitamin B 12, to a doctor in the Los Angeles area who ran an anti-aging and wellness clinic, the release said.
The doctor, who was not named, sent bulk orders for the drug instead of individual prescriptions as required.
When state and federal authorities inspected Tailor Made in 2018, Delk tried to hide records of the wholesale distribution of the drug, Duncan said.
“When pharmacies intentionally evade the FDA requirements, they are placing their own interests above those of the patients they are supposed to be serving,” Duncan said.
The FDA and FBI investigated the case.
Delk and his business are scheduled to be sentenced in February. Delk faces up to 10 years in prison.
This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 7:40 AM.
