Sanofi contractors use stolen API waste to make illegal drugs

The need for drugmakers to keep end-to-end tabs on their supply chains has been made apparent by a case in which workers at a waste disposal company contracted by Sanofi-Aventis diverted material from an API manufacturing process in order to make narcotics.

The men have pleaded guilty to protracted theft of the waste material, a pharmaceutical grade pseudoephedrine powder that was unsuitable for use in finished products, which was sold on to ther criminals involved in the synthesis of methamphetamine.

Methamphetamine, sometimes referred to as crystal meth, is routinely used by around half a million people in the USA, according to figures from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, and has a devastating impact on addicts.

The thieves worked for a contractor called Heritage Environmental Services, and stole hundreds of kilos of the pseudoephedrine powder over a 10-year period from Sanofi’s plant in Kansas City, Missouri. The facility is used to manufacture Sanofi-Aventis’ Allegra-D allergy product, which combines the antihistamine fexofenadine with pseudoephedrine, a decongestant.

The gang, thought to be more than 20-strong, sold the powdered by-product for $3,000-$10,000 per pound, netting a $7m haul which in turn fuelled the production of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $40m.

The illegal activity was only uncovered in February 2007, when the thieves decided to step up from the drip-feed of pseudoephedrine supply and hatched a plot to steal the ingredient in bulk.

Led by James Robert Everson, the men staged an armed robbery, kidnapping a security guard at the facility and making off with a 50-kilo drum of the material, which was later recovered at Everson’s home. That prompted a three-year investigation in which the details of the diversion gradually emerged.

In 2004, the US Drug Enforcement Administration tightened up the requirements for companies making, distributing, importing or exporting pseudophedrine, ephedrine and propanolamine with measures designed to prevent the theft and diversion of the substances.

Last August Sanofi-Aventis said it had decided to close down the Kansas City facility after failing to find a buyer for the plant, which employed 370 workers. It is due to cease operations completely in the middle of 2012.