College Pharmacy to forfeit $3.5 million in growth hormone case

The corporate owners of a Colorado Springs pharmacy have agreed to forfeit $3.5 million worth of proceeds from the sale of a banned growth hormone under a settlement with the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The agreement, announced Friday, caps one phase of the government's case against College Pharmacy.

The pharmacy's former owner, Thomas Bader, and former employees Kevin Henry and Bradley Blum were indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2007 on criminal charges they illegally imported banned Chinese human growth hormone, or hGh, and sold it to doctors in four states.

Bader and Henry are awaiting trials set for April.

Blum pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to facilitate the sale of smuggled goods and distributing human growth hormone. He was sentenced this week in federal court in Denver to serve two years of probation, with the first six months to be spent in home confinement. Blum also must pay a $10,000 fine.

The civil judgment must be paid by the new corporate owners of College Pharmacy because the corporation illegally benefited from the sale of the hormone between October 2005 and February 2007.

The deal allows the corporation to keep its property on Tejon Street, which the government threatened to seize. The new owners were not involved in the conspiracy, said Jeffrey Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has never approved the distribution of any human growth hormone made or imported from China. Approved growth hormone is used to treat those who cannot produce enough growth hormone naturally.

The pharmacy repackaged the illegal growth hormone to make it appear legal, Dorschner said. Their clients included doctors and children with a legitimate need for the hormone, but also bodybuilders and people wishing to slow the effects of aging, Dorschner said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story

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Contact the writer: 636-0366 or lance.benzel@gazette.com