This article originally appeared on KSL News. Read it in its entirety here.
SALT LAKE CITY — The group Alliance for a Better Utah filed a “price gouging” complaint Tuesday against the Utah pharmacy Meds in Motion, which last month sold the state 20,000 doses of anti-malarial drugs for $800,000 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The people of Utah deserve to have this matter investigated,” Chase Thomas, Alliance for a Better Utah’s executive director, said in a prepared statement.
“As if price gouging wasn’t bad enough, price gouging of an unproven drug during a pandemic in a transaction that uses public funds is truly beyond the pale,” Thomas said. “The public trust is at stake here, and Meds in Motion and Dan Richards must be held accountable if they are found to have used this crisis to pad their pockets.”
Dan Richards, owner of Meds in Motion and a Utah pharmacy lobbyist, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The price gouging complaint, filed with the Utah Department of Consumer Protection, alleges the $40 the state of Utah paid per medication pack — which includes chloroquine, zinc and hydroxychloroquine, according to an invoice of the transaction — far exceeded fair pricing for the drugs.
This article originally appeared on KSL News. Read it in its entirety here.
