NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
The stock of AmerisourceBergen Corp. tumbled Friday after a news report said the nation's biggest drug wholesaler is being investigated for possibly illegal drug sales to boost profits.
AmerisourceBergen (ABC: down $1.82 to $54.83, Research, Estimates) shares sank 4 percent in active New York Stock Exchange trading. More than 8.6 million shares had changed hands by midday, more than six times the stock's average daily volume.
The Chesterbrook, Pa.-based company used a complex scheme to get rebates from drug manufacturers more than once on the same drug sale, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing investigators from the Food and Drug Administration and the FBI.
AmerisourceBergen said in a statement it did not knowingly buy or sell drugs to customers who resold them illegally.
It also said it has not had contact with U.S. regulators since 2001 and that the Journal story probably refers to an inquiry that is years old.
The company said it "has had no contact from the government regarding such an investigation since the spring of 2001" and added that the story "probably refers to an investigation in which a customer illegally resold merchandise bought from AmerisourceBergen."
"The article implies that AmerisourceBergen somehow participated in an illegal scheme to garner rebates from manufacturers, multiple times on the same product. Such inference is absolutely not true, as will undoubtedly be demonstrated in a thorough investigation," CEO R. David Yost said in the statement.
The company scheduled a conference call for Friday morning to discuss the article.
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