Doctor gets probation for selling weightloss drugs from China to hospital colleagues
By PAULA REED WARD
TribLive
A former doctor at Penn Highlands Mon Valley Hospital was ordered Wednesday in federal court to serve two years probation after pleading guilty to illegally selling weight-loss drugs to hospital employees.
Liana Bittner, who worked at the hospital as an emergency department physician, said in court documents she was not earning a profit on the sales but in stead wanted to help her friends and colleagues lose weight and be healthy.
“Dr. Bittner has devoted her life to the practice of medicine, but her true passion is for helping others lose weight and live healthier lifestyles,” her attorneys wrote. “As someone who was once overweight herself, she made it her mission to protect others from obesity and the litany of downstream health issues it causes.”
Bittner pleaded guilty in December to a single misdemeanor count of delivering misbranded drugs.
As part of the sentence Wednesday, Bittner was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.
Senior U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti noted additional consequences Bittner has faced. She was terminated from her position, is on probation with the Pennsylvania Board of Medicine for three years and was required to pay a $7,500 civil penalty.
Bittner also faces a lawsuit in Washington County Common Pleas Court by a woman who said the weight-loss drug she provided almost killed her.
According to federal prosecutors, Bittner purchased tirzepatide, a generic form of Mounjaro, from a lab in China and then sold it, at cost, to fellow employees at her hospital.
The medication is used to treat Type 2, adult-onset diabetes, and is also used as a weight-loss drug.
The government said Bittner ordered the medication online between January and July 2024 and then sold it to others at the hospital.
She did not, however, conduct any medical exams or determine if the drug was appropriate for them, the prosecution said.
“Defendant’s motive for this crime does not appear to have been financial.
She sold the drugs to customers at or near her cost in obtaining the drugs,” the government wrote in court documents. “In other words, her only apparent motivation was a desire to give other people what they wanted, in this case, tirzepatide.”
‘Helping friends’
According to the prosecution’s sentencing memo, Bittner readily admitted her misconduct when confronted by her supervisors. She also cooperated with investigators, prosecutors said.
However, they noted that, because the drugs she sold were unapproved, they could easily have been counterfeit or contained dangerous substances.
According to court documents Bittner submitted prior to sentencing, when she learned about the efficacy of tirzepatide, she did her own research and was satis- fied at the safety of the compound.
That’s when she began to order it from China for personal use.
When she had success with it, her attorneys said, her friends and colleagues noticed and asked about it.
“Because she was already buying the products in bulk, she offered to provide tirzepatide to her interested colleagues, asking only that they reimburse her for out-of-pocket costs,” they wrote.
She gave them a printed set of directions, as well.
“From Dr. Bittner’s perspective, she was someone who was helping friends lose weight in a safe manner, like someone who would promote vitamins and a holistic lifestyle,” they wrote. “Nonetheless, when she was asked to stop sharing tirzepatide by her employer, she did.”
She regrets her actions, they said. Her attorney declined to comment on Wednesday. Messages left with the hospital and its attorney were not returned Wednesday.
Dire consequences
Although many of Bittner’s customers appreciated what she did for them, the prosecution said, one of them claims in a lawsuit that the medications Bittner provided almost killed her.
Melanie White of Fredericktown in Washington County worked at Mon Valley Hospital as an emergency room technician and said Bittner provided her tirzepatide for months.
Then, on July 6, 2024, White ended up in the hospital’s emergency department with excruciating abdominal pain, having vomited more than 10 times that day.
One of White’s doctors said he believed she had overdosed on Mounjaro. White developed severe sepsis, experienced acute respiratory failure and had to be intubated, the lawsuit said.
During emergency surgery, doctors found her colon to be gangrenous and necrotic, it continued. A total colectomy was performed, and her attorney said, she now requires a colostomy bag.
She remained in critical care until July 18, 2024, and later was moved to an inpatient rehab unit until July 31.
White and her husband, John White, sued Bittner, as well as Mon Valley Hospital and Penn Highlands Healthcare and Dr. Sundeep Ekbote, the director of emergency medicine and chief medical officer at Mon Valley. in Washington County Common Pleas Court.
The lawsuit includes claims for medical malpractice, negligence, fraud and retaliation.
White’s complaint asserts that Bittner delivered the medication in brown paper, or plastic grocery store bags, in a clear, unmarked and unlabeled vial containing a powdery substance. She also supplied White with needles and syringes, alcohol wipes and compounding ingredients for self-injection, it said.
“Dr. Bittner sold the substances for cash, often meeting patients such as Melanie White in the hospital’s storage room and closets, the employee parking lot or empty patient evaluation beds/ rooms,” the lawsuit said.
White claims Bittner failed to provide appropriate medical care in her treatment and disregarded state and federal law, as well as hospital policies in her actions.
The complaint also asserts that when Mon Valley Hospital administrators learned what Bittner was doing, they failed to take action to stop it other than to verbally admonish her to stop.
The hospital should have reported Bittner’s actions to the appropriate law enforcement and oversight agencies, the complaint said, and failed to investigate the incident as a serious event as required under state law.
