US Pharmaceuticals Big in The Gray Market

A joint Congressional investigation has found that some US pharmacies use the "gray market" to increase profits by thousands of percent.

Some US pharmacies are selling their entire inventories to "gray" marketeers, who make enormous profits by buying hard-to-find drugs and re-selling them at huge mark-ups, a joint Congressional investigation has found.

Moreover, prescription drugs had leaked into the gray market through pharmacies in 69% of the distribution chains examined for the probe. "Instead of dispensing the drugs in accordance with their professional duties, state laws and the expectations of their trading partners," the pharmacies had resold them to gray wholesalers, says the report of the investigation, which was begun last autumn by Representative Elijah Cummings, ranking member (Democrat) of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.