BMS suffers multimillion-dollar cargo heist*

Thieves made off with a plain white truck carrying several million dollars' worth of Bristol-Myers Squibb drugs last week in Florence, KY.

Both driver and passenger had left the truck unattended for about 15 minutes at a rest stop 225 miles from where their trip began. Thieves apparently broke a passenger side window to enter the truck, which was parked some distance from the rest area facility because the lot was full.

FreightWatch International has recorded 27 pharma thefts so far this year, reports Securing Pharma. Average loss per shipment s $5.1 million, up from $4 million in 2009. In 2008, 46 stolen pharma shipments had an average loss value of just $1.3 million.

Last week's theft included antihypertensives Avapro and Avalide, anticoagulant Coumadin, anti-psychotic Abilify, HIV drug Reyataz and antiplatelet medication Plavix.

- see the story

CORRECTION: A version of this story posted earlier incorrectly transposed the drug company victims of separate cargo thefts. Last week's theft involved a shipment of products from Bristol-Meyers Squibb (BMS), rather than GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The 2009 theft reported in the story involved GSK, and not BMS.  We truly regret the error.