Fox Rothschild announced May 11 that Christopher Groen was elevated to partner in the firm’s Denver office.
Groen practices in commercial litigation and represents companies and individuals in industries including real estate, financial services, health care and construction.
Groen received a law degree from Western State University College of Law and received a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University.
In Brief
USPTO Announces COVID-19 Priority Program:
The United States Patent and Trademark Office on May 8 announced a new COVID-19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program. Under this new pilot program, the USPTO will grant requests for prioritized examination to applicants that qualify for small or micro entity status without payment of the typical fees associated with other prioritized examination. The USPTO also has a goal of reaching final disposition of applications in this program within six months.
DOJ Announces
Omnicare Settlement:
U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn announced Wednesday that Omnicare, Inc., a subsidiary of CVS Health and a provider of pharmacy services to long-term care facilities, has agreed to pay the United States a $15.3 million civil penalty to resolve allegations that it violated federal law by, among other things, allowing opioids and other controlled substances to be dispensed without a prescription.
Omnicare operates “closed door” pharmacies – which are not open to the public – that deliver controlled substances to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. Omnicare makes daily deliveries of prescription medications to residents of such facilities, and it also pre-positions limited stockpiles of controlled substances at LTCFs in “emergency kits,” which are to be dispensed to patients on an emergency basis. These emergency kits, which often include opioids and other controlled substances that are commonly abused and diverted, remain part of Omnicare’s inventory and must be tightly controlled and tracked. The controlled substances may be dispensed only pursuant to a valid prescription.
The U.S. alleged that Omnicare violated the federal Controlled Substances Act in its handling of emergency prescriptions, its controls over the emergency kits, and its processing of written prescriptions that lacked required elements such as the prescriber’s signature or DEA number. The federal investigation found that Omnicare failed to control emergency kits by improperly permitting LTCFs to remove opioids and other controlled substances from emergency kits days before doctors provided a valid prescription. The investigation also revealed that Omnicare had repeated failures in its documentation and reporting of oral emergency prescriptions of Schedule II controlled substances. The Omnicare pharmacies in the District of Colorado are Omnicare of Pueblo, Omnicare of Grand Junction, and Omnicare of Golden.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office was represented in this matter by Deputy Civil Chief Amanda Rocque and Assistant United States Attorney Andrea Wang.