State board revokes Boardman man’s pharmacy license

COLUMBUS — The Ohio State Board of Pharmacy has permanently revoked the pharmacy license of Gary Evankovich, the Boardman man charged in a long-distance Internet prescription scheme.

It was a unanimous 5-0 vote among the board members voting on Wednesday following a four-day hearing before the board.

“They found him guilty of filling prescriptions without adhering to his corresponding responsibility to ensure that there was a valid doctor-patient relationship and that the prescriptions were for a legitimate medical purpose,” said Tracy Greuel, the assistant Ohio attorney general who presented the case against Evankovich to the board.

The Internet scheme involved more than 15,000 prescriptions and more than 1 million doses of medication, Greuel said.

Board member Brian M. Joyce of Girard removed himself from the case because he knows Evankovich. Another member couldn’t vote because he didn’t attend the entire hearing. The board president votes only in case of a tie, and one position on the nine-member board is vacant.

Once the board’s written order of revocation comes out in about a month, Evankovich will be barred from filling prescriptions, and he will have 30 days to appeal the revocation to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

If the revocation is sustained on appeal, Evankovich, 54, of Devonshire Drive, can never again be a pharmacist in Ohio, Greuel said. Evankovich, an owner of North Lima and Bel-Park pharmacies, was first licensed as a pharmacist in August 1978.

Read more in Saturday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com