Feds investigate Bellingham doctor over hundreds of Web hydrocodone prescriptions

A Bellingham doctor is under federal investigation, accused of peddling powerful painkillers over the Internet and writing hundreds of prescriptions without meeting or examining patients in 12 states, according to the Seattle field office of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

DEA agents on Friday searched the home of Dr. Peter Pfeiffer, a physician and anesthesiologist who is described in the search warrant as a "pill mill," an unlawful dispenser who wrote "a very large number of prescriptions for a single drug" — nearly 400 prescriptions for 90-pill bottles of hydrocodone between November and February. He is accused of profiting from the transactions without having a proper patient-physican relationship with any of the people for whom he wrote prescriptions.

The amount of the dispensed did not vary, according to the search warrant.

"With Dr. Pfeiffer, it is 90 pills every time for every customer in the United States. This is exceedingly unusual and indicates the prescriptions are being issued without medical justification," the warrant said.

The DEA announced its suspension of Pfeiffer's federal controlled substance registration on Monday, which means he can longer prescribe hydrocodone or other controlled drugs. The investigation is ongoing, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Friedman said in an e-mail that his office does not comment on the possibility of filing criminal charges.

The state's Medical Quality Assurance Commission, part of the Department of Health that regulates and issues licenses for health professionals, is aware of the federal investigation against Pfeiffer and is initiating its own administrative investigation, said health department spokesman Donn Moyer. Pfeiffer's medical license remains active.

No one answered the phone this morning at Pfeiffer's home.

Last month, DEA agents in Seattle received information from DEA headquarters in Washington, D.C. that Pfeiffer was authorizing online prescriptions that were then filled by a Beverly Hills pharmacy called "House of Medicine," according to the DEA search warrant. The pharmacy, which isn't open to walk-in customers, receives electronic prescriptions from doctors and then ships the drugs to patients.

The search warrants alleges that Pfeiffer wrote his DEA controlled-substance registration number and home address on each prescription.

"It is highly unusual for a bona fide physician to list his residential address on prescriptions," according to the warrant. That suggests Pfeiffer is conducting his Internet prescription activity from his home, a two-story, gray-blue house on a Bellingham cul-de-sac, the warrant says.

Pfeiffer's phone records also indicate he was in contact with numerous other online pharmacies, including the Internet prescription Web site, usmeds.com, the warrant says.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com