NATION Seller of Canadian drugs defies FDA

The entrepreneur says he's making money and helping seniors save money.
MIAMI (AP) -- Carl Moore has made -- and lost -- money lots of different ways. In oil. In water, too.
This time, he says, it feels different. As the founder of a chain of storefronts that help seniors buy cheap prescription drugs from Canada, Moore has a sense he is doing good, and that his cause is worth the battle against state and federal regulators trying to shut him down.
"I'm on a crusade," Moore declares in a deep voice with an Oklahoma twang.
He's also making good money, he says, with revenues totaling $36 million since opening. And he isn't one to give that up easily -- or give anything up easily. "When someone tells me not to do something, I do it," he told The Associated Press in an interview.
Since he started his chain of 85 stores, under the names Rx Depot and Rx of Canada, regulators in five states have tried to close them.
When the owner of the Indianapolis storefront buckled under pressure from regulators and wanted to shut the store last month, Moore bought it just to keep it open. When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tried to get Moore to close the Arkansas location earlier this year, not only did he refuse, he kept expanding.
Faces court hearing
Last month, Moore received his toughest challenge yet, when the Justice Department gave him an ultimatum: Close all the shops or be sued. The first court hearing is set for Wednesday.
Moore, 59, is a husky man with twinkling eyes, a crop of salt-and-pepper hair and a hearty paunch. He has never been a political activist or consumer advocate.
Having grown up in a poor farming family outside Tulsa, he says it was money that always galvanized him. After a stint in baseball's minor leagues, he built a lucrative oil importing and shipping business, but an industry downturn drove him into bankruptcy in 1984. He bounced back with several other businesses, including one that sold purified water to pharmaceutical plants in Puerto Rico.
A heart attack four years ago helped him put life in perspective. "I've always been profit motivated and that hasn't changed. But I guess I want to leave something behind," he said.
"I made a ton of money in the oil business, and I guess I always felt a pinch of guilt that I was making money and people were paying more for oil," he said.
"This business is a win-win situation. I make money and the seniors save money."
FDA seeks action
The Food and Drug Administration disagrees that it is a winning situation. After watching growing numbers of senior citizens turn to services such as Moore's and the Internet to buy medicine from Canada, it asked the Justice Department to get involved. Pharmaceutical companies also are trying to shut off supplies to the distributors who supply Canadian exporters.
Price controls in Canada keep medicines up to 50 percent cheaper than in the United States. U.S. laws prohibit importation of prescription drugs by anyone other than the manufacturer, although regulators have largely ignored transgressions.
Moore's lawyer, Fred Stoops, said he believes the importation regulations violate antitrust laws as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Family pride
Most of the money to set up the chain came from Moore's son, Joe-Max, a 32-year old professional soccer player for the New England Revolution. The father and son own 22 of the stores; the rest are operated as franchises, with owners paying a start-up fee and a percentage of profits to the Moores.
The elder Moore clearly adores his son, showing off a Rolex watch Joe-Max was awarded for his play on the U.S. national team and gave to his father.
The feeling of pride is mutual. "I'm not surprised by what my father has done," Joe-Max said. "He's always stood up for what he believed in, and he has a business that is being attacked."