SACRAMENTO (Los Angeles Times)-
CVS Caremark Corp. could face as much as $29 million in fines for allegedly losing track of prescription painkillers at four of its California stores, from which authorities said thousands of pills may have been sold on the black market.
Officials at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the California Board of Pharmacy reported Monday that more than 37,000 pills were apparently taken from CVS stores in Modesto, Fairfield, Dixon and Turlock.
READ: How Did Investigators First Notice the Missing Pills?
Meanwhile, CVS pharmacists in Southern California said they’ve been instructed by the drugstore chain to get their paperwork in order so that no other prescription meds are found to be missing.
Casey Rettig, a special agent in the DEA’s San Francisco office, said warrants were served on the four California CVS stores last May. She declined to comment further because the agency’s investigation is still open.
Virginia Herold, executive officer of the state Board of Pharmacy, which licenses and oversees all drugstores in California, said each of the missing pills — all painkillers, such as Vicodin — could have a street value of as much as $10.
Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento, said CVS faces 2,973 possible violations of the federal Controlled Substances Act for alleged discrepancies between the company’s records and its inventory of prescription drugs.
The maximum fine for these violations could be $29 million, she said.
