Opinion ID: 2630324
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Dutchess's purchases of Serostim from Crystal Coast

Text: Although Crystal Coast represented itself as an authorized distributor of Serostim on the invoices that it sent to Dutchess, it was not an authorized distributor. [4] Dutchess purchased at least 927 boxes of Serostim from Crystal Coast at prices below the Wholesale Acquisition Cost (WAC), [5] and 399 of the boxes contained counterfeit Serostim. In late 2000, Serono became aware that counterfeit Serostim was circulating in the drug market and sent notification to pharmacists and its customers, including Dutchess. Even though Dutchess received formal notification from Serono and informal notification from its own customers about counterfeit Serostim, Dutchess never asked Crystal Coast to provide invoices to demonstrate Crystal Coast's source of the Serostim. The evidence presented to the Board demonstrated that the person who supplied the counterfeit Serostim to Crystal Coast, before going to federal prison, had apparently conducted a pharmaceutical wholesale business in Florida without a permit, in violation of Florida law. The Board found that these facts should have caused Dutchess to discover the questionable character of Crystal Coast's distributor status.