Court finds pharmaceutical company not liable for teen’s overdose on stolen pills from Ridgewood’s Harding Pharmacy

Court finds pharmaceutical company not liable for teen’s overdose on stolen pills from Ridgewood’s Harding Pharmacy
October 17,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, A state appeals court has ruled that a pharmaceutical company cannot be held responsible for a teen’s overdose on stolen prescription pills.

The Guardians for Scott Simon, who lived in Bergen County at the time of the overdose, had sued Whitestone, N.Y.-based Kinray Inc. for damages following the overdose, which has left him in a coma for years.

Kinray had a long-standing partnership with Ridgewood’s Harding Pharmacy, supplying them with drugs such as Xanax, according to court documents.

In 2006, the Ridgewood’s Harding Pharmacy hired Marc Malajian as a clerk, despite knowledge that he had previously struggled with drug addiction..

Ridgewood’s Harding Pharmacy was found to have violated more than 90 federal regulations and was lax in adhering to rules requiring the drugs to be safely locked away.

As early 2007, the DEA contacted the pharmacy to advise them that Malajian was suspected of stealing drugs from the pharmacy. The owner testified that he was asked not to reassign Malajian or change anything about his operations, so as not to interfere with the investigation.

Malajian stole Xanax pills from the pharmacy on Sept. 22, 2007, , which he later took to a party at Simon’s house. At the party he provided the 17-year-old with the drugs, despite observing that he seemed “messed up” and had a tendency to get “a little crazy (with drugs) at times”, according to court documents.( https://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2012/10/court_finds_pharmaceutical_company_not_liable_for_teens_overdose_on_stolen_pills.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter )

The party was shut down, but the crowd moved to the home of another teenager whose parents were away. When Malajian woke in the morning, he found the teen “unresponsive, with shallow breathing and blue-tinged skin.” Simon was taken to the hospital and eventually revived, but has failed to wake up from a coma due to “catastrophic injuries” related to his overdose.

Simon’s guardians filed suit against Kinray, Malajian, Harding Pharmacy, its owners and various others. All except Kinray agreed to settle, but a judge ruled last year that Kinray could not be held responsible.

Harding Pharmacy & Liquors in Ridgewood, N.J.,reached a $1.9 million settlement in December of 2007 after Simon overdosed on stolen Xanax in 2007. The drugs were given to Scott Simon, now 21, by a former Harding employee Malajian at a party, and Simon’s lawyers successfully argued the drugstore should have better safeguarded them.( https://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/16/new-jersey-settlement-houston-death-highlights-business-culpability-versus/#ixzz29eMvF7Fc )

They appealed and In their appeal argued that the drug company had failed to properly oversee and regulate conditions in Harding Pharmacy that led to the theft of the Xanax.

To a casual observer it would appear unrealistic for a drug company to police its distributors at the micro management level. The state panel ruled that it would be “burdensome” for a company to attempt to exercise such oversight, and that it was right to expect that pharmacies would comply with regulations on the storage of dangerous drugs.

The case was famously intertwined with the Whitney probe named after singer Whitney Houston ( https://theridgewoodblog.net/drugs-of-choice-whitney-probe-lesser-known-nj-case-raise-questions-about-personal-responsibility/ )