Online drug pioneer tumbles

Enlarge Image

Andrew Strempler made his fortune selling drugs to U.S. customers across the border via the Internet. (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

One of Canada's Internet pharmacy pioneers has lost his credentials to practise in Manitoba after a three-year probe into allegations he sold counterfeit prescription drugs to Americans.

Andrew Strempler, founder of the Minnedosa-based Mediplan Prescription Plus Pharmacy, agreed to strike his name from the provincial pharmacist registry at a discipline hearing last October. The outcome of the fall hearing has only recently been posted on the Manitoba Pharmaceutical Association website.

Experts say it's the most severe penalty that can be handed to a pharmacist and prevents Strempler from renewing his licence to practise in Manitoba.

The fallout comes nearly four years after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration first warned consumers that drugs from Strempler's Manitoba-based firm were unsafe. In August 2006, the FDA said preliminary lab tests of intercepted shipments found counterfeits of widely prescribed drugs such as Lipitor and Celebrex.

The body that regulates Manitoba pharmacists investigated the allegations and charged him with professional misconduct in early 2009. The Manitoba Pharmaceutical Association alleged Strempler dispensed drugs that were not approved by Health Canada out of a location in the Bahamas and sold them to Americans labelled as if they originated from Canada. The body accused Strempler's firm, also known as RxNorth, of selling prescription drugs that were close to, or past, their expiry date.

Strempler voluntarily withdrew his name from the provincial register and agreed to pay $7,500 to cover the cost of the investigation as part of a deal to stay the charges against him. Strempler could not be reached for comment and his lawyer, Thomas Frohlinger, declined to speak about the matter.

"Mr. Strempler is no longer a pharmacist in the province of Manitoba," said Ron Guse, the MPA registrar. "I think the truth of the matter is reflected in the charges."

Strempler was one of the country's first Internet pharmacy entrepreneurs who capitalized on the cheap cross-border sale of drugs at age 25 when he sold Nicorette gum on eBay. The idea prompted Strempler, his wife Catherine, and pharmacy pals Mark and Chantelle Rzepka to start Mediplan in 2001, a business once estimated to be worth $1 billion.

Strempler bought out his partners in 2005 and eventually sold the business in late 2006 after the FDA warnings surfaced.

At the time, he publicly denied any wrongdoing and said the allegations were "completely false."

David Marr, lawyer for the Manitoba Pharmaceutical Association, said Strempler was not present at the 2009 discipline hearings, but contested the charges through his lawyer.

Guse called the lengthy investigation a "phenomenal" challenge for Manitoba regulators, as the evidence had to be collected with the co-operation of officials in the Bahamas.

He said the pharmaceutical association hardly had the resources to deal with the matter and that the regulatory body has a limited capacity to police businesses who sell drugs outside Manitoba.

Those concerns prompted the association to post a disclaimer on the websites of the remaining Internet pharmacies operating in Manitoba last year.

The association now advises consumers of its limited ability to "investigate and prosecute" complaints against online pharmacies who sell products internationally.

"We need help," Guse said. "We barely had the resources to pursue this matter."

It's unclear whether Strempler could face future criminal charges, as police in multiple jurisdictions are still investigating.

RCMP Sgt. Line Karpish said Canadian officials are working with other law enforcement agencies and continue to investigate.

"The investigation is not closed," Karpish said. "It's still ongoing."

jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca

High-living Strempler out of $2-M mansion

ANDREW Strempler has left his posh Wellington Crescent digs.

Strempler's $2-million, 6,500-square-foot home (shown left) was put up for sale in April 2009 -- just one month after his first hearing in front of the Manitoba Pharmaceutical Association's discipline committee. He and his wife Catherine purchased the mansion, once owned by Leonard Asper, in 2006 after they left Neepawa.

The Free Press was unable to reach Strempler for comment. Last April, he told the Free Press he is unable to comment about his family or home life.

"I have not left Winnipeg," Strempler said in a Facebook message on April 14, 2009. "I am just travelling for business."

Strempler is known for his flashy, flamboyant style and has been known to drive two Dodge Vipers, a Jaguar and a yellow Lamborghini. His fast rise to success was featured in Forbes Magazine and the New York Times.

The New York Times later earned a Pulitzer Prize for a 2007 article that revealed drugs from Strempler's firm, RxNorth, did not originate in Canada, but were made in China and shipped along a complex trade route to the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the Bahamas.

"I went from milk right to scotch and cognac, and I had to grow up real quick," Strempler told the New York Times in 2005 as he puffed on a Cohiba Esplendido cigar and sipped a snifter of Remy Martin XO.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 24, 2010 A3