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Tue, 17 Oct 2006 21:32:34 EDT

Oct 17, 2006 05:41 PM EDT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A Kansas City-area pharmacist accused of playing a key role in a nationwide scheme to distribute and sell fake Lipitor and other pharmaceutical drugs is expected to plead guilty Wednesday to some of the charges.

Jeff Morris, attorney for Doug Albers, of Leawood, Kan., told The Kansas City Star that his client will take responsibility for buying the drug Neupogen through brokers who lacked a Missouri license and for distributing drugs that the Food and Drug Administration had warned were counterfeit. Neupogen is used to increase white blood cells.

In return, prosecutors will drop charges against Albers and his Kansas City-based company, Albers Medical Distributors Inc., related to the sale of counterfeit Lipitor, an anti-cholesterol drug and one of the best-selling pharmaceutical drugs on the market.

"He's accepting responsibility for what happened," Morris said. "This is a positive step in resolving matters for himself, his family and his company."

Believed to be the largest investigation by the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations, the case has shone a spotlight on the amount of fake, mislabeled, adulterated and stolen pharmaceuticals that have gotten into the nation's drug delivery system.

A federal grand jury in August 2005 indicted Albers, his distribution company and about a dozen other individuals and companies for engaging in a conspiracy to sell $42 million in counterfeit, stolen or illegally imported medications.

According to prosecutors, the conspiracy's members bought drugs meant for South American markets and illegally brought them into the U.S. They also bought chemicals and equipment and used it to make fake Lipitor in Costa Rica.

Albers faces up to three years in prison for each of two counts in the plea agreement and $500,000 in fines. He also has agreed to give up his pharmacist's license and his interest in Albers Medical Pharmacy and Albers Medical Distributors.

Albers Medical Distributors will pay a civil forfeiture fine of $500,000 and is expected to give up its drug distribution business. The pharmacy, which wasn't part of the indictment, will continue under new ownership.

Morris said Albers, who has long claimed he didn't knowingly buy and distribute fake drugs but was tricked by others, will admit that he should have done a better job watching over his business and is liable as the distribution company's "control person."

"We view this as a continuation of our cooperation with the government in prosecuting those individuals who knowingly involved themselves in the counterfeit drug trade," he said.

The government's investigation has netted about a dozen convictions or guilty pleas with another six defendants awaiting trial, including the drug ring's alleged leader and California-based brokers who worked with Albers Medical Distributors.

The distribution company, set up in 1987 as an extension of Albers' pharmacy, bought and sold drugs with other wholesalers.

Prosecutors claim the distribution company paid $12.8 million for fake Lipitor from G&K Pharma, a Florida wholesaler. The company it bought the bogus drugs because it heard a Puerto Rican drug distributor was selling the tablets in bulk.