Firm to pay $260M for cancer Rx woe

A SUBSIDIARY of one of the country’s biggest wholesale drug companies admitted Wednesday in Brooklyn Federal Court to distributing misbranded drugs related to cancer treatment.

AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group will pay a $260 million penalty after it pleaded guilty to the illegal distribution of misbranded drugs in connection with its nationwide shipments. They came from an Alabama facility that wasn’t registered with the Food and Drug Administration.

The shipments went out from 2001 to 2014, according to records.

Prosecutors said the prefilled syringes were made in an unsterile environment. To sidestep federal scrutiny, the subsidiary didn’t register the facility as a repackager or manufacturer with the FDA.

According to AmerisourceBergen, there weren’t any allegations that patients were harmed. The facility was shut in 2014 because of “business conditions.”

The facility passed Alabama inspections and had state licenses.