KV Pharmaceutical: Timeline
Written on April 8, 2010
1942 — Founded by Victor Hermelin and Bob Keith, both of St. Louis.
1947 — KV and its co-founders charged with shipping vitamin capsules that had less than the required amount of vitamins.
1950 — KV charged in a criminal complaint with shipping 51,000 vitamins whose ingredients were deficient.
1975 — Victor’s son, Marc Hermelin, becomes chief executive.
1982 — An explosion and fire in KV’s testing room causes widespread damage to an industrial building in Brentwood.
1990 — Forms its generic drug subsidiary, Ethex Corp.
1992 — Food and Drug Administration identifies manufacturing problems at Ethex.
1993 — FDA raids KV facilities, seizing drugs and ingredients. KV signs consent decree agreeing to improve its manufacturing practices.
1995 — KV pleads guilty to federal misdemeanor charges of misbranding a children’s antibiotic and agrees to pay $600,000 in fines and costs.
May 2008 — KV ordered to stop making some cough, cold and gastrointestinal drugs. California and Canadian pharmacists discover oversize morphine sulfate tablets.
June 2008 — KV initiates first of a series of recalls of its products.
July 2008 — The FDA searches KV facilities and seizes about $24 million in drugs that were not approved by regulators.
December 2008 — Board of directors fires Marc Hermelin and names David Van Vliet as interim chief executive.
January 2009 — KV stops manufacturing and shipping all of its products and recalls most of its drugs.
March 2009 — KV signs a consent decree with the Department of Justice, agreeing not to make any drugs until FDA approval.
March 2010 — KV pleads guilty to two felony counts of failing to inform the FDA of oversize drugs on the market and agrees to pay $27.6 million in fines and restitution. CVS Pharmacies sues KV for allegedly breaking supply contract.
Filed in: economics.