BOSTON (WWLP) – A doctor in Lexington was found guilty of illegally importing misbranded medication from Hong Kong.
According to the Department of Justice in Boston, 66-year-old Rahim Shafa, a psychiatrist who owned and operated Novel Psychopharmacology, allegedly imported implantable pellets not approved by the FDA from approximately January 2008 through January 2018. He falsified shipping documents to conceal that the packages containing the drugs shipped from Hong Kong to Massachusetts.
Massachusetts doctor and wife charged with illegally importing meds from China
Court documents allege that Shafa sold these drugs to his patients of Novel for treatment of alcohol dependence and alcohol and opioid dependence. He implanted naltrexone and disulfiram pellets into patients’ bodies, without fully understanding the risks of the drugs.
Shafa was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2020 and subsequently charged in a superseding indictment in June 2021. During a 14-day jury trial, testimony from patients was included regarding infections and complications they experienced from the pellet implantation procedure.