Man sentenced after selling unapproved drugs

BROWNSVILLE A man reportedly licensed to practice medicine in Mexico but who had operated a medical clinic in Brownsville was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison Thursday.

Francisco Morales, 54, was sentenced for conspiring to introduce misbranded and unapproved new drugs into interstate commerce, according to a statement Thursday from U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas.

Morales, who pleaded guilty, admitted he sold an unapproved drug product to his co-defendant Lawrence Stowe, 60, and misrepresented himself to the public, Magidson said.

Morales would falsely tell patients he was experienced in stem cell treatments when he had only attended seminars and read research papers on the subject, according to Magidson.

In a separate case, Morales bought stem cells from a South Carolina company and then illegally took them to Mexico to treat U.S. citizens there, Magidson said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved the use of stem cell treatments for people.

Stowe admitted he advertised and promoted therapies to treat patients with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease, falsely claiming they had been reviewed by the FDA for treating the diseases, according to the federal statement.

Neither Stowe nor Morales were licensed to practice medicine in the United States.

Morales will have three years of supervised release after his prison term, U.S. District Judge Gray Miller ruled. He also was ordered to pay restitution of more than $479,000.

djoseph@express-news.net

Twitter: @drewqjoseph

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Man sentenced after selling unapproved drugs