Medicine Cargo Stolen in Tennessee
13,000 packages of a variety of generic medicines in approximately 400 cases were seized in a robbery from a tractor trailer parked in a secure yard in Jackson, TN on May 14, 2011.
Securing Pharma reports that the stolen cargo included “cholesterol-lowering colestipol tablets, eplerenone tablets for heart failure, the antibiotics azithromycin and clindamycin in oral and topical formulations, sulfasalazine for inflammatory bowel disease and arthritis, quinapril for high blood pressure and the antidepressant sertraline.”
Officials are concerned that the cargo will be re-introduced into the supply chain. Patients can suffer serious side effects from improperly stored and transported medication. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said in the past that it has encountered cases where people have experienced adverse reactions from stolen drugs that were most likely due to improper storage and handling.