Miami man sentenced after distributing over $16 million of tampered HIV drugs
A man was sentenced Thursday in Miami federal court to four years and three months in prison after he admitted earlier this year to taking part in the distribution of at least $16.7 million of tampered HIV drugs that were ultimately dispensed to unsuspecting patients across the United States.
Armando Herrera, 43, and his co-conspirators established companies in Florida, Texas, Washington and California that they used to sell and distribute adulterated prescription drugs, primarily HIV medications, to wholesale pharmaceutical suppliers from January 2019 to November 2021, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said in court these companies could have paid Herrera and his co-conspirators as much as $25 million for these drugs.
Among the adulterated medications were Truvada and Biktarvy. A drug is adulterated if, among other things, any substance has been substituted in whole or in part for the drug.
Herrera and his co-conspirators obtained wholesale distributor licenses for several of these companies, acquired large quantities of “diverted drugs,” including HIV medications and repackaged them to make them appear as though they were properly acquired through legitimate and regulated channels of distribution, his criminal complaint says.
READ MORE: Miami man distributed over $16 million of adulterated HIV drugs given to U.S. patients
Then they sold and distributed the drugs, his complaint detailed, to additional co-conspirators at the companies in Maryland and Colorado at steep discounts, “far below the prices available when the prescription drugs were sold through legitimate channels of distribution.”
Investigators say Herrera and his people transferred a portion of the proceeds to a company they established in Florida.
The operation, prosecutors say, allowed the companies in Maryland and Colorado to resell and ship the adulterated and misbranded drugs to pharmacies cross the U.S., which billed healthcare benefit programs thousands of dollars for each 30-day supply of these medications to HIV patients.
Herrera was charged in June with conspiracy to introduce adulterated and misbranded drugs into interstate commerce. He pleaded guilty on Sept. 25.
