Pubdate: Tue, 02 May 2000
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2000, The Tribune Co.
Contact:  http://www.tampatrib.com/
Forum: http://tampabayonline.net/interact/welcome.htm
Author: Sarah Huntley of the Tampa Tribune

ENTREPRENEUR GOES ON TRIAL FOR SELLING DEPRENYL

The government's allegations have all the trappings of a big-league drug 
conspiracy: An illicit substance being sold for a hefty profit, dealers 
slipping it into the country across the Mexican border, even the discovery 
of a secret stash behind a hidden door in a local laboratory.

But the product at the heart of a trial unfolding in U.S. District Court in 
Tampa this week isn't cocaine, heroin or marijuana.

It's deprenyl, a substance advocates describe as a modern-day Fountain of 
Youth.

Federal prosecutors opened their case Monday against a Wesley Chapel 
entrepreneur accused of manufacturing and distributing deprenyl without the 
permission of a doctor or the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Rubinstein contends that James T. Kimball, 
61, has thumbed his nose at government regulators for nine years, 
continuing to make a product that he knows is illegal and dangerous.

Deprenyl is related chemically to methamphetamine, Rubinstein said. The FDA 
currently allows only one company, Somerset Pharmaceutical Co., to produce 
it domestically under the trade name Eldepryl. The drug is used to treat 
some forms of Parkinson's disease and is available only by prescription. 
The FDA says it can cause side effects when taken excessively or with some 
foods and medicines.

"This is not a harmless substance," Rubinstein told jurors Monday. "It is a 
powerful prescription drug."

But Kimball, who runs Discovery Experimental and Development Inc. on State 
Road 54, insists that the FDA is attempting to interfere with the sale of a 
life-saving nutrient.

Kimball, who is representing himself, wasn't to deliver his opening 
statement until today. But in an interview last August, he said deprenyl, 
which he uses in a liquid form, is not a drug and therefore doesn't fall 
under government control.

He calls the FDA the Federal Death Administration and claims to be on a 
mission to give Americans who are battling senility and old age a new lease 
on life.

Prosecutors say Kimball, who has no formal scientific training, began 
marketing deprenyl in 1990. The government alleges that he made most of his 
sales through an elaborate mail-order scheme involving a Mexican warehouse 
and a Californian shipping company linked to Kimball.

Last summer, agents intercepted a package that allegedly contained 108 
bottles of deprenyl bound for England.

Kimball sought FDA approval for his product several times, but Rubinstein 
said he submitted incomplete applications, then printed the rejection 
letters in his marketing pamphlets.

"Essentially, Mr. Kimball has tapped into a certain niche market, a 
subsection of the population that hates the FDA," Rubinstein said.

Kimball faces eight counts of conspiracy, distribution of a misbranded drug 
and lying to federal authorities. Also charged is one of his former 
employees, Gaylord Hughes of Phoenix, indicted on a single count of conspiracy.

Two other former employees are expected to testify for the prosecution 
later this week.
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