Cancer patients worry over diluted drugs

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 300 people have called an FBI hot line, alarmed by the news that a Kansas City pharmacist has been accused of diluting chemotherapy drugs, the FBI said Thursday.

Jeff Lanza, an FBI spokesman in Kansas City, Missouri, said the calls have come mostly from patients worried that their medicine may have been diluted. Some doctors have also called.

Lanza said authorities have not yet determined the extent of the problem.

"We think the number of victims is possibly in the hundreds, but we don't yet know that," he said.

MORE STORIES Pharmacist charged with diluting drugs

Working with the Food and Drug Administration, the FBI is going through records seized from the Research Medical Tower Pharmacy in Kansas City, which Robert Courtney owned and operated.

RESOURCES FBI Hot line: 816-421-8639

Courtney, 48, appeared Wednesday before a federal magistrate, who pronounced him a flight risk and ordered him held without bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for Monday, at which time Courtney is expected to enter a plea.

Courtney is accused of dispensing the chemotherapy drugs Gemzar and Taxol with potency levels ranging from about 39 percent to less than 1 percent of the intended strengths that had been prescribed by doctors, according to an affidavit. He is charged with a felony count of misbranding and adulterating prescription drugs.

Officials said the investigation began in May, when a sales representative for Eli Lilly, maker of Gemzar, noted a discrepancy between what it sold to the pharmacy and what the pharmacy had supposedly provided and billed to patients. A doctor informed by the salesman then decided to send samples he obtained to an independent lab. The lab found the samples highly diluted, officials said.

On July 27 the doctor gave the FBI and FDA additional samples prepared by the pharmacy, which it also found were diluted.

Federal investigators working with the physician ordered more chemotherapy prescriptions, and found lesser amounts of the drugs than they were represented to contain.

The affidavit cites one prescription for Gemzar which if filled properly would have cost the pharmacy $1,021.25 -- the amount of Gemzar that was allegedly detected in the treatment dispensed would have cost only $241.88.

The FBI has established a hot line for patients and doctors: 816-421-8639. Investigators are urging physicians who may have dispensed the drugs or patients who may have received them to identify themselves.

Federal prosecutors said if Courtney is convicted of the felony count, he could face a maximum punishment of three years in prison without parole and a fine of up to $250,000.