Court orders Florida pharmacy to close in opioid distribution case

A Florida federal court has ordered a Tampa-area pharmacy to close down and barred the couple who runs it from operating a business where controlled substances are dispensed after they were accused of illegally distributing opioids.

WeCare Pharmacy owner Qingping Zhang, pharmacy technician Li Yang and L&Y Holdings LLC have all been banned from managing or operating a business where controlled substances are dispensed, the Department of Justice announced on Monday. 

In January of this year, prosecutors accused Zhang and Yang, who are married, of repeatedly violating the Controlled Substances Act, alleging that they knowingly dispensed controlled substances without a prescription and outside the normal professional practices of a pharmacy between 2016 and 2020.

Zhang and Yang allegedly purchased thousands of doses of Schedule 2 controlled substances including hydromorphone and oxycodone, with WeCare’s purchasing volume of hydromorphone exceeding Florida state averages by four times. In 2019 alone, the pharmacy allegedly purchased ten times the Florida state average of hydromorphone, which is used to treat moderate to severe pain and is highly addictive.

As for oxycodone, WeCare’s purchasing volume fell in line with other Tampa-area pharmacies, but prosecutors said this was also noteworthy when taking into account WeCare’s smaller customer base when compared to national pharmacy chains.

Zhang allegedly ignored common red flags that would have indicated prescriptions for opioids brought to WeCare were not legitimate, such as people traveling from far distances for their prescriptions, repetitive prescribing patterns and multiple people with prescriptions for controlled substances sharing the same address.

“Pharmacists and those who own and operate pharmacies have a duty to ensure that controlled substances are distributed lawfully,” acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton of the Justice Department’s civil division said in a statement.

“The Department of Justice will continue to work with its partners to ensure that business owners and medical professionals handling controlled substances do not violate the Controlled Substances Act,” he added.