Diluting Druggist Pleads Guilty

A pharmacist accused of watering down chemotherapy drugs pleaded guilty Tuesday and could get up to 30 years in prison in a case that shocked cancer patients and their families.

Robert R. Courtney, shackled at the hands and ankles, admitted that he committed 158 dilutions of drugs for 34 patients and said he had "no rational explanation" for what he did.

"I have had a long period of time in isolation to reflect on my conduct," said Courtney, 49. "I am guilty and I accept full responsibility. To the victims, I am extremely sorry."

Prosecutors have said he made hundreds of dollars extra per dose.

Authorities have not said whether any patients died as a result of his diluting their chemotherapy drugs. Legal experts have said prosecutors would have faced a daunting task in trying to prove that a cancer patient would have lived if the medication had not been tampered with.

CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports that less than two weeks before his case went to trial, the pharmacist changed his plea to guilty to 20 counts of product tampering and mislabeling the drugs Taxol and Gemzar sold to dozens of customers — charges that could have put him behind bars for nearly 200 years.

Under the terms of the plea agreement Courtney will serve between 17 and a half and 30 years in federal prison and in exchange he will give prosecutors a detailed account of how many prescriptions he watered down.

No sentencing date was set.

Courtney also faces up to $15 million in fines. And his estimated assets of more than $10 million will be used as restitution for victims.

The pharmacist, who has been jailed since August, has said he began diluting medications to help pay more than $600,000 in taxes and fulfill a $1 million pledge to his church.

Spectators in the packed courtroom included Courtney's wife, as well as relatives of cancer patients who believe they received diluted doses from Courtney's Research Medical Tower Pharmacy.

Barbara Wibbenmeyer, a cancer patient from Kansas City who has sued Courtney, called the plea agreement "probably the best thing we can do for the victims at this point. It starts putting closure to the `wheres' and the `whens."'

"If they do give him 30 years, I'd like to see my mug shot on his wall for the rest of his life," said Wibbenmeyer, 47. "I think he needs to see me."

Courtney has been stripped him of his pharmacy licenses and forced to sell two pharmacies, in Kansas City and in suburban Merriam, Kan. He also faces about 300 lawsuits accusing him of fraud and wrongful death.

Some of the lawsuits against Courtney also accuse two pharmaceutical companies - Eli Lilly & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. - of knowing about the dilutions and doing nothing. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

"We said all along that (Courtney) should be held fully accountable for diluting these medications, so we're very pleased that he's taking full responsibility for his actions today," said Eli Lilly spokesman Jeff Newton.