Robert Courtney Case Robert Courtney

Robert Courtney Case Robert Courtney was a successful pharmacist in Kansas City, MO, who got greedy and decided he would water down cancer-related drugs in order to pocket money for himself. He did not get away with his ill-gotten gains, and in fact he has admitted his guilt and has been sentenced to up to thirty years for his crimes.

This paper delves into the life and crimes of Courtney, who was a minister's son and was active in the Northland Cathedral Pentecostal Church, giving large amounts of money to the church building fund, and singing in the choir.

What did Courtney do to land in federal prison? CBS News reports that Courtney admitted to watering down the drugs of thirty-four cancer victims; but authorities familiar with the Courtney case say he may have "diluted 98,000 prescriptions" that were issued through "about 400 doctors" possibly having a negative affect on up to 4,200 patients" (Freed, 2009, p. 2). The drugs that Courtney admitted diluting were Taxol and Gemzar (drugs used for chemotherapy patients) and cancer-fighting drugs, Platinol and Paraplatin, according to Freed's account in the CBS News story.

The New York Times reports that prior to Courtney's arrest in 2001, he had "amassed $18.7 million in total assets" albeit he was reporting to the IRS that he earned far less than that (Draper, 2003).

The Times' article went into great depths in its investigation, pointing to Courtney's lavish lifestyle, his crude treatment of his second wife (he wanted her to be "…like a doll on a shelf"), and his habit of "fending off inquiries from pharmaceutical reps in the Kansas City region about how much of which drugs he was selling" (Draper, p. 3). He got caught because "He was sloppy," according to Todd Graves, the U.S. Attorney who served as prosecutor in the litigation against Courtney (Draper, p. 3).

The moral code that Courtney operated by "required a rationale," Draper writes. That rationale? "He most likely took comfort in what amounted to his defense in the civil proceedings against him" that regardless of the worthlessness of the diluted drugs he administered "his customers were destined to die anyway" (Draper, p. 3). How exactly did he get caught? After learning that it was possible that Courtney was diluting medications, the FBI and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) arranged a sting.

In the sting, one of Courtney's customers (Hunter) ordered six prescriptions from Research Medical Tower Pharmacy (Courtney's company); the results of the tests on those drugs showed that "each had been diluted to between 17 and 39% of the required dosage" (Draper, p. 3). The customer named Hunter than ordered two more prescriptions of Gemzar and one of Taxol. Soon the results from the FDA tests showed the "concentration levels had been reduced to 28%, 24% and virtually zero," Draper explains.

A few days later the FBI "swarmed the pharmacy"; in the federal officers' car outside his building Courtney was asked how the doses of cancer drugs could have been so drastically diluted. "I don't understand," he replied. The Times' writer asks rhetorically, how could a "devout Christian and family man" who had built up about $20 million of earnings "…continue to steal from cancer patients as if his own life depended on it"? That is a question for the ages. Perhaps.