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Fake Botox purveyors sentenced
Associated Press
Published January 27, 2006
FORT LAUDERDALE - The husband-and-wife physicians who made more than $1.7-million selling an unapproved toxin to hundreds of doctors as a cheaper alternative to the Botox antiwrinkle drug were sentenced to prison Thursday by a federal judge.
Dr. Chad Livdahl, the 34-year-old president of Toxin Research International Inc. of Tucson, Ariz., was sentenced to nine years by U.S. District Judge James Cohn.
His wife, Dr. Zahra Karim, also 34, was sentenced to almost six years but will likely serve less than two because she will be transferred to her native Canada and is eligible for early release, her attorney said.
The couple pleaded guilty in November to fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from their shipments of botulinum toxin type A to more than 200 doctors around the country.
The toxin, pushed at physician workshops and conferences by Livdahl and Karim and TRI, was not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use on people.
Also sentenced Thursday was University of Kentucky ophthalmologist Robert Baker, who pleaded guilty to helping distribute the unapproved drug. Baker provided a testimonial letter that was used in marketing. He got two years' probation, including 180 days of house arrest.
The sentences came a day after one of TRI's customers, Dr. Bach McComb of Fort Lauderdale, received three years behind bars for use of an unapproved drug. In late November 2004, McComb injected himself and three others with knockoff Botox that had not been properly diluted, causing botulism poisoning and nearly killing all four of them.
[Last modified January 27, 2006, 01:20:12]
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