The federal steroid investigation involving Applied Pharmacy Services has been linked to self-proclaimed anti-aging expert James Abernathy. Physician Pamela Pyle, of Personal Touch Aesthetic Laser and Skin Rejuvenation Center in Myrtle Beach, pleaded guilty to withholding information about illegal steroid distribution. She admitted to writing prescriptions for James Abernathy, owner and director of Body Solutions Rx (“Steroids probe,” May 4).
Pamela Pyle, MD paid $5,000 to Abernathy Longevity Systems for the Longevity Professional Training Program For Physicians and Allied Health Care Providers. She became an Abernathy Physician’s Associate in March 2005. About a year later, Abernathy asked her to start writing steroid prescriptions for his customers (“Steroids probe,” May 4).
In March 2006, according to the plea agreement, Abernathy sent Pyle an e-mail asking her to write prescriptions for his customers until he could replace a physician who had retired.
When Pyle questioned the legality of the arrangement, Abernathy assured her that it was legal, according to her plea agreement.
The document lists 18 patients for whom Pyle wrote prescriptions for anabolic steroids. The orders totaled about $13,000, and Abernathy paid Pyle $60 for each customer, according to her plea agreement.
In each case, she never saw the patient and prescribed the exact combination of drugs that Abernathy recommended, according to her plea bargain. In some cases, she prescribed Trenbolone, a livestock drug.
James Abernathy defended his recommendations of trenbolone as appropriate while deflecting some of the responsibility for the recommendations to pharmacists at Applied Pharmacy Services.
In his interview with the Press-Register, Abernathy said Trenbolone is not a drug he ordinarily would recommend, although he added there could be some exceptions. He said that he relied on the expertise of the pharmacists at Applied Pharmacy.
Abernathy further defended the Body Solutions Rx clinic.
Abernathy, 53, said his dealings with Applied Pharmacy have been aboveboard at all times. “We’ve used many pharmacies,” he said. “Applied was one of the front-runners in HIV treatment. They had an outstanding reputation.” […]
Abernathy said he would never recommend steroids to improve athletic performance or to serve as some sort of fountain of youth. “In fact, we turn away many patients who are looking for vanity medicine,” he said.
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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