Patrick Boyd and Charles Boyd, the owners of a Maryland-based pharmaceutical wholesaler, were sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison for distributing more than $92 million of black-market HIV medications, directly harming HIV-positive patients and putting countless others at risk.
“They bought drugs off the street from black-market suppliers, shipped them in dirty boxes and discarded packaging, falsified paperwork and pushed those medications back into the legitimate pharmaceutical supply chain,” said Jason Reding Quiñones, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, in a press release from the Department of Justice. “The consequences were real. HIV patients received bottles containing the wrong drugs, and at least one patient lost consciousness after ingesting medication that should never have been in that bottle.”
From 2020 to 2021, Patrick, 47, and Charles, 43, resold more than 28,000 bottles of black-market HIV drugs out of their pharmaceutical company, Safe Chain Solutions, according to the press release. They billed Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurers for the cost of the drugs.
The brothers purchased HIV drugs from at least five black-market suppliers through patient buyback schemes. One supplier testified that he purchased HIV medications from patients on the street, removed prescription labels and repackaged the bottles in cardboard boxes scavenged from trash before shipping them to the defendants.
In August 2020, several pharmacies reported to Safe Chain Solutions that they had received bottles of medications with entirely different drugs in them. Another pharmacy customer reported the bottles of HIV drugs did not meet safety standards and due to their condition upon arrival could put patients at risk.
Black-market drugs not intercepted by staff at pharmacies wound up being distributed to patients. A patient testified at trial that his HIV medication bottle contained Seroquel, an antipsychotic drug, which he unknowingly consumed, causing him to lose consciousness for 24 hours. At least one other patient complained that they were given and consumed the wrong drug.
Taking HIV medication as prescribed is important for lowering viral load—the amount of virus present in an HIV-positive person’s body. People with HIV who maintain a low viral load have a slower progression of the disease, enjoy better overall health and are less likely to develop opportunistic illnesses. People with an undetectable viral load don’t transmit HIV to others through sex. This is known as treatment as prevention, or Undetectable Equals Untransmittable (U=U).
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, missing a dose of HIV treatment, even now and then, can allow the virus to multiply rapidly in the body, increasing a person’s viral load and allowing for potential spread of the virus. Missing doses can also lead the virus to develop resistance to the meds. Through their scheme, the Boyd brothers drove up viral loads for individuals and entire communities, exposing more people to HIV and reversing efforts to stop the spread of the disease.
“They took life‑threatening actions that showed an alarming disregard for human life in service of nothing more than a payday,” said Scott Lampert, acting deputy inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services. “Their criminal scheme endangered vulnerable patients, put entire communities at risk and undermined the integrity of Medicare and Medicaid.”
The brothers were indicted in June 2024 by a federal grand jury in Miami, convicted in October 2025 and sentenced in March 2026. Patrick Boyd was sentenced to 18 years and Charles Boyd to 20 years in federal prison. The brothers were also ordered to forfeit nearly $22 million each.
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