Fake cancer drugs were cooked up in Alabama man’s kitchen — some with hair, feds say
A 54-year-old man in Alabama is accused of whipping up fake cancer treatments with his son and nephew in the family kitchen using an unapproved drug from China, federal prosecutors say.
Some were even packaged with stray hair, according to court filings.
Patrick Charles Bishop was hit Wednesday with a 28-count indictment on multiple fraud and conspiracy charges related to the manufacturing, marketing, sale and distribution of homemade suppositories containing a peptide called PNC-27, prosecutors in the Northern District of Alabama said in a news release.
Suppositories are solid objects inserted in the body — often the rectum — that release medicine as they dissolve, according to the National Cancer Institute.
PNC-27 is a drug from China that has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the U.S.
“The FDA’s requirements are designed to ensure that patients receive safe and effective medical treatments,” Special Agent in Charge Justin C. Fielder said in the release. “Evading the FDA process and distributing unapproved, adulterated, and misbranded drugs to vulnerable Americans will not be tolerated.”
According to the indictment, Bishop ran a company called Patrick LLC that employed his son and nephew in 2015 and 2016 — neither of whom had any medical experience.
Bishop reportedly used other fake business names while buying and selling products related to the scheme to hide his activities from the FDA.
Over a two-year span, he spent more than $600,000 on PNC-27 purchased from a company in China called GL Biochem. Bishop had claimed to be using the chemicals for research purposes, prosecutors said in the indictment.
In reality, Bishop was using the PNC-27 to make suppositories in his kitchen and at a warehouse in Birmingham, storing them in such a way that “they could be and were contaminated with bacteria or other filth,” the indictment states.
Bishop held himself out as a researcher and expert on PNC-27’s effect on cancer cells, officials said. Using a website that promoted the drug as a proven cancer treatment, prosecutors said Bishop claimed “PNC can effectively treat any kind of cancer,” that it was “non-toxic” and had been tested successfully on humans.
He also used words like “sample” and “research” on the product labels without “any directions for safe use” to try and hide the scheme, according to the indictment.
Bishop sold many of the fake treatments to Hope4Cancer, “a holistic cancer treatment center with clinics in Mexico,” prosecutors said in Wednesday’s news release.
On one occasion, the center emailed Bishop “regarding several packs (at least 1 per shipment) with hair in them,” the indictment states. Bishop reportedly responded by ensuring they would “report it to the lab” and “replace the ones that were affected.”
Bishop ultimately net $3.5 million in sales from Hope4Cancer, which prosecutors said he spent on houses and luxury cars.
He faces more than 20 years in prison and more than $750,000 in fines if convicted, prosecutors said.
