Carl Moore, Rx Depot Founder

This is a partial transcript from Your World with Neil Cavuto, November 7, 2003, that was edited for clarity.

Watch Your World w/Cavuto weekdays at 4 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: The battle over prescription drugs from Canada just got really personal for my next guest. He is the founder of Rx Depot. He has thousands of customers. And now he’s being forced to shut down his business after a judge sided with the federal government in its case against his business.

Carl Moore will appeal and is confident that he will win this fight. He joins us now from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Mr. Moore, thank you for joining us.

CARL MOORE, RX DEPOT FOUNDER: You bet. Thank you.

CAVUTO: What do you do now?

MOORE: Well, the next step will be to appeal the decision to the next level, which is the 10th Circuit in Denver, Colorado.

CAVUTO: So what excuse did the government give you or this judge give you for shutting you down?

MOORE: The decision rendered that we were breaking the re-importation laws and importation of drug laws, although the practice has been going on for 15 years freely at border crossings and by mail-order and by the Internet.

CAVUTO: Well, you know what the judge has said here. He says the defendants are able to offer lower prices only because they facilitate illegal activity determined by Congress to harm the public interest. So that’s saying that, you know, what you are doing isn’t legal. What do you say?

MOORE: Well, we thought it was legal when we started the business and we think it is legal today. This is a serious setback in this court’s ruling. But we are going to go forward through the appeal process and, at some point, we think fairness will be served.

CAVUTO: Now, the Food and Drug Administration, if I’m right, you can only manufacture or bring into the country drugs from manufacturers. So you are going around that. Now there are others doing exactly what you do, so you are quite right in saying this has never been sort of punished to this degree before. But that is essentially the crux of what is going on here, right? Manufacturers have to bring drugs in, not middle men, right?

MOORE: Well, I think there has always been a policy where they allow a 90-day supply for personal use. I think where it gets confused is when they say commercialization. I think the law’s intent is to prevent commercialization of drugs that we have exported to Canada previously.

Well, that is not what we are doing. We do not commercialize the drugs. These are brought in for individual use only on a 90-day basis, and not for resale. I think they are misusing the intent of the law.

CAVUTO: All right. Now, the FDA is free to perform inspections of your facilities. Have they?

MOORE: Oh, no, not at this time. This ruling just came down last night.

CAVUTO: Would you welcome them to do it, sir?

MOORE: If you are asking me -- oh, of course. We’re going to follow the direction of the court and abide by the laws of our land.

CAVUTO: So you have nothing to hide there, right?

MOORE: We just disagree with the decision. Pardon me?

CAVUTO: I’m sorry. You have nothing to hide there, right?

MOORE: Oh, absolutely not. We never handled drugs in any way. We are simply an information service, an ordering service for people that aren’t Internet savvy in the heartland of America and Canada’s (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

CAVUTO: You know, sir, there are a lot of people who admire what you are trying to do, get cheaper drugs to people. But they fear about the safety efficacy that might be compromised as a result. How do you answer them?

MOORE: Well, last year they estimated that two million packages came across, and they’re saying this year it’s closer to three million packages. There is not one reported case of abuse in anyway or one unsatisfied customer, aside from some time delays in getting them shipped to them.

CAVUTO: All right. In the meantime, you can’t be shipping anything, right?

MOORE: Oh, no, no. We’re out of business nationwide. We have 88 stores that are closed down, and we’ll have to wait to see if we get any relief. And if we don’t, then they’ll be closed permanently.

CAVUTO: Mr. Moore, thank you very much. Carl Moore, we’ll see where this develops. The Rx Depot founder and head of that company in Tulsa.

Content and Programming Copyright 2003 Fox News Network, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2003 eMediaMillWorks, Inc. (f/k/a Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, Inc.'s and eMediaMillWorks, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.