Pharmacist gets jail
for drug sales

The former owner of an Oxford Circle pharmacy was sentenced on Friday to six months in jail after pleading guilty to illegally selling sample prescription drugs.
Mark Rubin, 51, of Southampton, will also spend six months under house arrest.
U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe fined him $75,000 and ordered him to forfeit $225,000.
Rubin once owned Summerdale Pharmacy, at Summerdale Avenue and Sanger Street. He sold the store in February 2001, and the pharmacy remains in business.
The pharmacist was indicted last December by the U.S. Attorney’s office. He was charged with illegally buying drug samples from physicians and drug company representatives, then dispensing them to the public.
According to the government, he paid his suppliers $500,000 during the scheme, which lasted from January 1993 to September 2000. That figure was below the wholesale price.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Hoffman said Rubin bought and dispensed samples of Ambien, Celebrex, Paxil, Prozac, Serzone, Biaxin, Augmentin, Zyprexa and Remeron. ••