Astoria Pharmacy co-owner says they asked authorities if there was a problem with the programA co-owner of Astoria Pharmacy said the business ended its relationship with an Internet-based prescription drug seller last month after concerns were raised by state officials.

Federal agents raided Astoria Pharmacy Friday in connection with an investigation into Xpress Pharmacy Direct, a drug retailer accused of selling medications without a prescription and defrauding customers. The agents seized computer records but made no arrests, and the pharmacy is open for business.

Astoria Pharmacy is reportedly one of at least four other businesses around the country targeted in the probe, which involves the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service.

State and federal authorities say the investigation is ongoing and are offering no additional information. But Astoria Pharmacy co-owner Fred Raw said he and partner Allan Staley haven’t broken any laws as far as they know.

The local pharmacy became a distributor for Xpress Pharmacy about four months ago, after receiving an e-mail solicitation from the Internet-based company. The pharmacy received e-mailed prescription orders from a physician, which it filled and sent out to patients by Federal Express in packages provided by Xpress Pharmacy.

Raw, who lives in Philomath and isn’t involved in the day-to-day operations at the pharmacy, doesn’t know exactly how many prescriptions the business filled, but said they went out to customers all over the country. Much of the prescriptions were for pain medication, he said.

“We just thought we were performing a service,” he said. “Neither Allan nor myself had any intention of breaking the law or circumventing the law.”

At first the company wanted Astoria Pharmacy to fill prescriptions provided directly by Xpress, but Raw said he and Staley told the company they would only handle prescriptions issued by a doctor. They made sure that the physician working with Xpress was licensed and asked for proof that he had a legitimate relationship with each patient for whom he was writing the prescriptions.

“We asked the doctor ‘how have you gotten to know these patients?'” he said. “We do not take just anything from anyone – it has to come from a doctor.”

Raw said he never spoke with the physician personally and isn’t aware of what relationship the doctor has with Xpress Pharmacy.

Some time in April, officials from the Oregon State Board of Pharmacy came by the pharmacy and took possession of prescription records from the Xpress accounts.

“At that time we asked them ‘should be stop or continue?’ and they told us ‘we don’t know,'” he said. “From all the governing bodies, we tried to get them to tell us if there was anything inherently illegal, and they never did.”

A short time later, the board contacted the pharmacy and told the owners that the Xpress prescriptions might not be legal. “We stopped, and sent the board a letter that we had stopped,” Raw said.

The pharmacy was only paid a dispensing fee, about $5 per bottle, for the Xpress prescriptions, which did little more than cover their own costs, Raw said. “It’s not like we were making a ton of money.”

Raw said federal agents are using the local pharmacies to get at Xpress Pharmacy, noting he was scheduled to speak with a DEA investigator Wednesday. The partnership with Xpress was the first time Astoria Pharmacy had linked up with an Internet drug retailer, although the office has received mailings from at least four or five other similar web-based drug sellers.

“As far as what happened Friday, it scared the bejeezus out of the girls here,” he said of last week’s raid, adding that the agents were in the building for most of the day and didn’t let any employees leave.

“They were looking for caches of illegal drugs, offshore bank accounts, which of course didn’t exist,” he said.

Xpress Pharmacy Direct is one of a large number of Internet-based prescription drug sellers that operate under names such as “www.budgetpill.com” and “webmedsnow.com”

Xpress Pharmacy’s Web site was not operating Monday. On an on-line forum for prescription drug buyers, one customer’s question about other people’s experience with Xpress drew varied responses. Some said while the company’s prices were high they did eventually receive the drugs they ordered, while others reported problems with their orders. One warned the person away.

“Do not do business with these crooks … I am out about $200.”