Audit finds 740,888 tablets missing from pharmacy

Authorities say thousands of tablets missing

State authorities cracked down Thursday on a longtime Des Moines pharmacy by seizing medications and prescription records, all part of an investigation into hundreds of thousands of unaccounted-for pain pills.

The Iowa Pharmacy Board is investigating how controlled substances were handled by Bauder's Pharacy at 3802 Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines.Bauder's has been a fixture in the Ingersoll neighborood since 1916.

Documents show a number of administrative charges have been filed in the case -- some 20 counts.

An audit was conducted for the period Jan. 1, 2008 to March 21, 2012. It "revealed a shortage of approximately 740,888 tablets of various strengths of hydrocodone APAP, a schedule III controlled substance." Hydrocodone is used to relieve moderate to severe pain.

Documents show the pharmacy received 1,098,900 hydrocodone tablets and dispensed 358,012 to customers.

The document details how many tablets were not accounted for in records: 229,846 in 2008, 163,185 in 2009, 155,436 in 2010, 182,732 in 2011 and 9,689 in January through March 2012.

Pharmacy board investigators say in official documents that Bauder's "...followed a practice of ordering from an unsually diverse number of drug wholesalers."

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy filed the charges on May 3 and name the pharmacy's owner and pharmacist Mark Graziano.

The Pharmacy Board has taken emergency action immediately suspending Graziano's license to practice pharmacy.

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Audit finds 740,888 tablets missing from pharmacy