November 11, 2024: Feds pursue companies selling fentanyl precursors

Federal prosecutors unsealed a May 2024 indictment charging an eighth Chinese chemical company and several of its employees for the alleged sale of fentanyl precursor chemicals and/or controlled substances. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California, the company exported chemicals to at least 100 countries, including 11 kilograms of fentanyl precursors and two kilograms of xylazine into the U.S. The chemicals were concealed in packages labeled as furniture parts, vases, makeup, and other items. Chinese law enforcement has also taken action against these defendants. Read the indictment here, The other seven indictments can be found in our Prosecution Document Library.

Reuters reported that Novo Nordisk’s chief financial officer cited the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's adverse events database (FAERs) to assert that 10 people had died and 100 more had been hospitalized after taking compounded copies of its weight-loss and diabetes drugs. The FAERs database is an important resource to find patterns of adverse incidents, but it does not capture the medical histories of patients or establish that a medicine was the cause of a bad health outcome