| Doctor in court over charges of using fake Botox |
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| Friday, 16 March 2007 | |
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His defence attorney, William Hughes told the jury that administering the non-approved drug is not a crime, and that Poet was merely doing what he believed to be best for his patients. "I submit to you, the evidence will show Dr. Poet's intent was to give his patients the best quality care possible, not to steal money," Hughes said. Poet, 57, is charged with 13 counts of mail fraud and one count of misbranding a drug. An indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in August 2006 alleges that Poet administered a non-approved substitute for Botox to "many of the approximately 130 patients who sought Botox treatments at his offices" between January 1st, 2004, and December 1st, 2004. The indictment also alleged that Poet ordered 26 vials of a drug called Tritox from Toxin Research International, an Arizona based company, charging the $26,559 cost for the drugs to his personal MasterCard. According to the indictment, the drugs were shipped to him by United Parcel Service. Poet is said to have advertised Botox treatments in newspapers and on his Web site, but substituted it with Tritox, a nonapproved, less expensive drug, according to Cowles. Despite using the cheaper product, he charged his patients for the more expensive Botox, the prosecutor added. "Botox is what Dr. Poet offered, and Botox is what his patients trusted him to provide," she said. "Dr. Poet defrauded his patients. He betrayed his patients' trust through his acts of criminal fraud," Cowles said, saying that Poet tried to cover up the fraud by failing to differentiate in patients' charts who had received the Botox and who had received the Tritox. She said that the Tritox Poet used was labeled "for research purposes only," and "not for human use." His defence lawyer said Poet was "lied to about the FDA status of Tritox" by someone who has already been prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office, "who got a lot of money by deceiving physicians and other people just like Dr. Poet." He said the person who deceived Poet put those labels on "to cover his own tail when the authorities came to him." The case continues. |
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